Manel Kape doesn’t back down from a challenge, but it’s difficult for him to settle any scores when the guy he supposedly beat up wasn’t even there.
In early July, Jean Silva claimed he witnessed Kape attack upcoming UFC 304 opponent Muhammad Mokaev outside the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. The incident allegedly centered around some harsh words the flyweights shared on social media, and Silva detailed what he called his own firsthand account of watching the altercation unfold.
“He elbowed Mokaev in the head on the street, bro,” Silva claimed. “He caught Mokaev at the entrance here to the [UFC] P.I. He headbutted him and elbowed him in the street. He opened Mokaev’s head a week before his fight. He’s a psychopath.”
The only problem with that story, Kape said, is that it never happened.
“Nothing happened,” Kape told MMA Fighting. “It was just Jean. I have a Brazilian friend, he made this story [up] just to spice up the fight. He knows I’m going to fight Mokaev and we tweeted before in the past badly with each other, this was public. We never hid this from anyone. This was public.”
While altercations between fighters have popped off at the UFC P.I. in the past, the facility is typically filled with athletes at any given time at day or night, so it seemed a little strange that no one else caught this alleged brawl between Kape and Mokaev.
As further proof that no physical altercation ever took place, Kape was quick to point out that he trains in Las Vegas but Mokaev rarely travels to the U.S. unless he’s arriving for fight week.
Proximity wise, that would make a street fight between the flyweights rather difficult to facilitate.
“Mokaev is in Dagestan or England, and I’m in Vegas,” Kape said. “We did not have any fight. People like to buy this fan story. This is the story. By the way, Jean is a good promoter. He’s a good seller at the end of the day. This makes the fight more exciting.
“But no, nothing happened. Me and Mokaev are good, we are brothers, nothing like this happened.”
Of course, Kape doesn’t mind standing up for himself even when he’s the smaller fighter in a situation. He famously got into a very heated war of words with former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya ahead of UFC 293, and later said he rebuffed an attempted apology from “The Last Stylebender.”
That being said, Kape’s previous war of words with Mokaev was nothing more than social media bluster as the 23-year-old undefeated prospect started calling out higher ranked flyweights in an attempt to book a fight. None of that meant Kape was looking for blood whenever he ran into Mokaev again.
“Mokaev is a young kid and he wants to rise fast,” Kape said. “He wants to be a champion like Jon Jones so early, and he didn’t get the opportunity. So of course he made this game at the beginning to catch the big sharks. He was a small fish in the water, so he wanted to get to the big sharks. So I understood his game.
“But we never had anything personally. Not physical interaction. Jean wanted to make this fight a thing. Mokaev, at the end of the day, is my Muslim brother. All good. But I’m still the best. I’m still the best in this game. I’m still young too. I’m 30 years old. People don’t sleep on this. I’m just getting much better.”
When it comes to the actual fight on July 27, Kape is excited to finally get in there with Mokaev and mix it up after so much debate through social media and interviews.
Kape appreciates the talent Mokaev has displayed since first arriving in UFC, although he’s seen some shortcomings from Mokaev’s opponents that cost them the chance to end his unbeaten run.
“Definitely, he’s been winning,” Kape said. “When the Brazilian guy [Jafel Filho] snapped his leg, it was definitely more his ego talking. He definitely did not want to give up but it was his ego. Of course, he has an impressive record and he doesn’t want to lose. It’s good too, but he’s put in a position where he’s not going to able to continue to do this all the time. I saw a lot of small mistakes that the fighters who are fighting him did, and of course, the mistakes of his and he takes the opportunity of these mistakes.
“Just because I say to you and I say to everybody, there is a [difference] at the championship [level]. Of course, all these fighters are good, they’re in the UFC, congrats, but this is different. These [are] mistakes [fighters] with championship material do not make. I don’t make mistakes. I don’t make these kinds of mistakes. I saw very well what mistakes these guys are doing with Mokaev and they didn’t catch him and were about to catch him. Many times they rush a lot, and championship fighters don’t rush. We hunt. We are calm.”
In particular, Kape looked at Mokaev’s most recent win. While Kape didn’t have many kind things to say about Tim Elliott, even he saw moments when the veteran flyweight could have pulled off the upset and beaten Mokaev.
“Tim Elliott is just a bum,” Kape said. “He’s just a bum. He’s an old fighter. He fights like a stupid guy. He was winning the fight against Mokaev, don’t get me wrong, Tim Elliott was doing great. He’s just very sloppy and very dumb. This is my opinion. This is the story of the fight.”
The stakes of the matchup couldn’t get much bigger, because all signs are pointing to the winner getting the next shot at reigning UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
Kape fully expects that scenario to play out after talking to UFC and knowing an opportunity to become champion has been dangling over his head for the past few months.
“Yes, we’ve been in conversation a lot [with the UFC],” Kape revealed. “Even when I was supposed to fight Matheus Nicolau in April, I should have fought Pantoja if I [beat] Matheus Nicolau. The fight [Steve] Erceg got [at UFC 301] was my opportunity. This is the second time, the opportunity for the belt, so I just have to step in the cage and win.”
