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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight contender Manel Kape has talked up his street fighting prowess in the past, and now there’s a secondhand account backing him up.
Jean Silva — the UFC Featherweight who just picked up an impressive knockout win at UFC 303 over Charles Jourdain — is a training partner of “Star Boy,” and he revealed Kape is already one up on his next opponent, undefeated prospect Muhammad Mokaev. According to “Lord Assassin,” Kape bloodied up Mokaev months ago in an incident at the UFC Performance Institute (PI) after some online trash talk between the two.
“Manel Kape hit Mokaev here outside the gym a while ago,” Silva explained to AG Fight. “He elbowed Mokaev in the head on the street bro.”
Mokaev interrupted the story, adding “This will be the second time I’m going to hit you [Mokaev], but calm down.”
Silva continued, “Bro, he caught Mokaev at the entrance here to the [UFC] PI. He headbutted him and elbowed him in the street. He opened Mokaev’s head a week before his fight. He’s a psychopath, and I was going to spar with him that day … Mokaev had said he was going to slap [Kape] in the face, then [Kape] saw Mokaev, and Mokaev wanted to apologize. He said, ‘Apologies won’t be accepted, now you’ll have to do it.’ Then, Mokaev took a step back. When I went down and opened the second door, he arrived and headbutted Mokaev and elbowed him. Mokaev fell to the ground.”
Bad blood aside, this is a really important Flyweight fight that could prove to be a title eliminator. At 23 years of age, Mokaev is unbeaten and 6-0 inside the Octagon. Most recently, he dispatched former title contender Alex Perez to advance firmly into the Flyweight Top 10.
Kape, meanwhile, is a decorated former RIZIN champion who’s finally caught his stride in the Octagon. There’s been some issues making it to the cage this year, but “Star Boy” is one of the division’s few knockout artists and has won four in a row.
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