Muhammad Mokaev progressed closer to the top of the Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight division. The undefeated fighter from KHK MMA Team managed to defeat previous Titan Fighting Championship kingpin, Tim Elliott, by deploying an arm-triangle choke in the third round of their featured UFC 294 preliminary match. The event took place on Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. With this defeat, Elliott succumbed to his first submission loss in more than three years.
Mokaev’s victory did not come without obstacles. He found himself in precarious situations several times during the match, one notably being, when he wriggled out of a tight triangle choke in the second round and landed in a commanding position. In the third round, Mokaev managed to free his head from a punishing front headlock, quickly turned the situation around and fastened the ending arm-triangle choke on Elliott before he could retaliate.
In a separate match, Dana White’s Contender Series graduate, Trevor Peek clinched a unanimous decision over Mohammad Yahya in a three-round lightweight standoff. The fight showed peaks of a tactful approach by Peek, who swept the scoreboards with 29-28, 30-27, and 30-27 points from the judges. Yahya, the former UAE Warriors champion, tried to resist with a brabo choke at the end of Round 1 but couldn’t create the necessary offense to throw Peek off course.
Additionally, Mike Breeden from Marathon MMA managed to turn his lightweight match around to secure a win against Anshul Jubli, landing blasts in the third round, and bringing the curtain down 3 minutes into Round 3. Despite dominating the first ten minutes with body and leg kicks, body-head punching combinations, and close-range knee strikes, Jubli was caught off guard in the final round when Breeden unleashed a fierce attack. The match ended with a first win for Breeden since May 7, 2021.