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Photo by Richard Sellers/PA Images via Getty Images Top-ranked flyweight Muhammad Mokaev’s next fight is expected to place in the Karate Combat pit. A promotion official confirmed with MMA Fighting that Mokaev has signed with Karate Combat after the 24-year-old initially announced the news on Twitter. Mokaev is set to make his promotional debut on May 2 at Karate Combat’s event in Dubai. May 2nd Dubai @KarateCombat My first ever sport was karate , then I moved to wrestling I just wanna compete and stay activeAnd building my striking experience I always will have plan B which is wrestling but I need to work on plan A pic.twitter.com/sk1iq2MJnO— Muhammad Mokaev (@muhammadmokaev) March 27, 2025 “My first ever sport was karate , then I moved to wrestling,” Mokaev wrote. “I just want to compete and stay active, and [continue] building my striking experience. I always will have plan-B, which is wrestling, but I need to work on plan-A.” Mokaev went 7-0 competing in the UFC, but after his contract expired following a decision win over Manel Kape at UFC 304 this past July, the promotion chose not to re-sign him. The No. 10-ranked fighter in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings most recently competed at Brave CF 91 in December, earning a first-round submission win over Joevincent So.

Sibling rivalry is definitely a real thing when it comes to Jake Paul and his older brother Logan Paul. The first episode of their new reality series Paul American dropped on Max this week and traveled back in time to Jake first announcing his plans to fight Mike Tyson in what ended up as one of the most watched fights in the history of combat sports. But just after the fight got made, Logan went on his podcast with his Prime Energy Drink business partner KSI and they mocked the matchup due to Tyson’s advanced age after the now 58-year-old veteran accepted Jake’s challenge. That led to an ugly exchange over a phone call when Jake reached out to his brother after watching the podcast episode. “I’m going to do everything I can to make it the biggest event as possible,” Jake told Logan. “You are the closest person to it and you’re undermining it. Sitting there with KSI talking shit about it. You’re so lost to me, brother.” In a separate segment, Jake claimed that Logan has notoriously done this to him their whole lives so he wasn’t totally surprised it happened after he announced the biggest opportunity of his career. “Logan is constantly undermining me any chance that he can get,” Jake said. “He’s sitting there with my biggest enemy [KSI] talking shit about the biggest accomplishment of my life. It’s just not what brothers should do.” Of course as close as Logan and KSI have grown in recent years, Jake’s feud with KSI is well documented so it probably made that podcast episode an even tougher pill to swallow. Still, Logan didn’t think what he said was all that harsh, especially knowing that his opinion wasn’t going to sway viewers from actually tuning into the fight or not. “No one’s not going to watch Mike Tyson because I said he’s old. Everyone knows he’s old,” Logan said. “Bro, what the f*ck podcast did you watch? I upped you the whole time! I said you could knock him out in the second. I said if you guys were actually going to go at it, you’re going to beat him. “Bro, who is your yes man? I’m not that. Get other people to tell you that it’s going to be a good fight against Mike Tyson. He’s f*cking old, bro!” It still didn’t sit well with Jake, who tried to explain to his brother that perception is reality and having a family member disrespect the fight was just a bad look to the promotion of the event. “That’s not the point, brother,” Jake said. “It’s about selling the fight. It’s coming from my own brother.” The conversation then took an ugly turn for the worse with Jake taking aim at Logan’s personal relationships. “I have amazing friends and family. You don’t even have a single f*cking friend, bro. [Your podcast co-host] Mike [Majlak is] a f*cking paid friend, bro.” Logan then fired back with the same accusation before the conversation ended with Jake hanging up on his brother. “You live in a house with your paid homies,” Logan said. “He hung up. What a f*cking bitch.” During the episode, Jake and Logan’s mother admitted it’s difficult to see her sons at odds with each other, especially when things get so nasty between them. For his part, Logan admitted that his personality often clashes with Jake and that makes for a potentially combustible situation. “Jake is a tough guy but he’s also sensitive and I’m an assh*le,” Logan said. “It’s not a good combo.” Jake seemed to agree, especially when it comes to the attitude his brother Logan takes with him. “Sometimes I just don’t get why Logan treats me this way,” Jake said. “It’s sociopathic level lack of empathy for his younger brother and he’s constantly trying to tear me down.” That awkward conversation was made even worse considering the fallout happened just a day before Jake and Logan Paul were scheduled to sit down with Warner Bros. Discovery to pitch the idea for the new reality show. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and Logan later told his brother that he even edited the podcast episode in question with the comments about the Tyson fight. Jake did eventually get to fight and defeat Tyson by decision in a matchup that was watched by 100 million viewers on Netflix. The first episode of Paul American is now streaming on Max.

Leon Edwards | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC Din Thomas doesn’t think Leon Edwards has the heart of a fighter. This past Saturday, Edwards faced off with Sean Brady in the main event of UFC London where things went horribly for the former champion. Brady dominated “Rocky” for most of the fight and then became the first man to finish Edwards, submitting him with a mounted guillotine choke in the fourth round. But Thomas, who was in the corner for Brady on Saturday, knew the fight was over long before the tap. He says it was over the moment Edwards shot for a takedown in the third round. “When he did that, I got quiet and I looked at John Marquez, the head coach, and said, ‘Did he just try to take Sean down?’” Thomas said on Anthony Smith’s podcast. “And then when he got reversed, John was like, ‘Man, we could just play checkers and we could literally play chess right now because we don’t need to do anything.’ We just knew at that point, the fight was over. When Leon shot that takedown, he showed his hand that he did not want to be there anymore and that was a wrap. I couldn’t believe it.” It was a devastating loss for Edwards who is now on the first losing streak of his career and well outside the title conversation. Perhaps even worse is how those two losses have looked. Thomas says Edwards’s losing streak revealed a harsh reality for the former champion: he doesn’t have the heart for this. “I don’t want this to be disrespectful toward Leon, because I still believe that skill for skill, his body type and all that, that he was a great champion,” Thomas said. “He’s a great fighter. He’s still top-five material. But I just don’t think that Leon is, in his heart, a real true fighter. “And I say that in terms of Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier. These guys will fight you in a parking lot. I think he’s an athlete and I think he’s a performer. I think he’s creative. I think in the gym, he probably eats up everybody in the gym. Super magical. I just think when the lights come on and it’s time for him to really fight — despite not being a true fighter, he was still that good. He was still that good and still able to beat everybody.” It’s a harsh assessment from Thomas, but not the first time he’s levied it at Edwards. In Edwards’ second fight with Kamaru Usman, Thomas was on the UFC broadcast and noted that Edwards appeared mentally defeated, shortly before Edwards scored a miraculous last-minute comeback knockout. There was no such comeback for Edwards this time out, and with a growing sample size, Thomas believes that even Edwards’s team knows he’s speaking the truth. “I think they even recognize that Leon at times is not a true fighter at heart,” Thomas said. “And they want him to be, that’s why they’re protective of him. That’s why the coach is like, “Come on, son! Don’t let him bully you!’ Because they know that if he had a little bit more grit in him and had the ability to chew iron, that he would probably still be world champ. ... “And to be fair, I didn’t have it either. This is how I know what it looks like because I didn’t have it either. When things got hard for me, I resorted to pulling guard, too. I resorted to shooting takedowns and pulling guard, so I know what it looks like.”

Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images Logan Paul will fight Lionel Messi’s bodyguard, but it will be on his terms. Yassine Chueko recently posted a video on Instagram challenging Paul to a fight. The current WWE star gave a response on his YouTube channel late Wednesday night. “Tell him to get in line, bro,” Paul said. “It’s an MMA guy who thinks he can box, who thinks he’s entitled to victory or attention because he’s Messi’s bodyguard. “I’ve offered to fly people out before, he doesn’t even deserve a fly out.” There’s a bit of history between the two camps as the soccer star’s drink brand Más+ filed a lawsuit against Paul’s drink brand PRIME for “anti-competitive” behavior, to which PRIME filed a countersuit. As the legal system will declare a winner of one battle, Paul says if Chueko really wants to fight, he’s not hard to find — but there are stakes attached to it. “It’s like, bro, I’m here in Puerto Rico, if you want to pull up on me in Puerto Rico, you’re more than welcome, bro,” Paul said. “When I beat your ass, and it’s a big when, not if, when I beat your ass, you’ve got to drink PRIME. You’ve got to drink PRIME, bro. “I really would start to feel bad for Messi because he’s going to lose this lawsuit, he’s probably going to lose his bodyguard, because why the f*ck would you hire a bodyguard if you get beat up my a YouTuber. The man is just losing everything — except the World Cup. Respect.”

Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez found out his legal fate earlier this week as he was sentenced to five years — minus time served — after pleading no-contest stemming from his arrest in February 2022. Now that the sentenced has been handed out, was a it small win all things considered? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel reacts to Velasquez’s sentence, whether it was a win or loss, and if it does anything to his legacy overall. Additionally, they’ll discuss the latest updates on Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall — from both UFC CEO Dana White and Aspinall — Sean Brady delivering a lopsided performance against Leon Edwards at UFC London, where both fighters go, Jeff Molina and Darrick Minner getting multi-year suspensions for infractions stemming from the James Krause gambling scandal, Saturday’s UFC Mexico City card, and much more. Join MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jed Meshew. Watch the show live at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT in the video above. If you missed the show live, you can still watch above, or listen to the podcast version, which can be found below and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods.