Muhammad Mokaev has stepped in on just two days’ notice to take a grappling match with fellow top MMA fighter Arman Tsarukyan at Hype Fighting: Brazil on March 11th, 2026. Tsarukyan was originally supposed to be facing popular wrestler Georgio Poullas after a brawl broke out after their wrestling match at Real American Freestyle 6. Tsarukyan won that match on points but clearly took issue with Poullas’ aggressive style, and he started throwing punches almost immediately after the match had ended. Members of both competitors’ teams then leapt into action and multiple officials had to intervene in order to break everything up.
That grudge match will now take place at Real American Freestyle 7 instead, but Poullas withdrawing from this booking left Tsarukyan without an opponent. Tsarukyan already competed for Hype Fighting back at their Armenian event; where he fought Sharaputdin Magomedov to a draw, but this will be Mokaev’s promotional debut. Although the official result in that match was a draw, it was only because it went the distance and no judges or points-systems were used. Tsarukyan was the only one with any notable offense during the match and he landed several takedowns towards the end. Under any commonly-used judging criteria or points-systems, Tsarukyan would have won the match.
Now he’ll be looking to continue his run; one that that has taken place all around the world and across multiple different combat sports rulesets. Tsarukyan is currently on a five-fight winning streak against some of the best lightweights in the UFC, and he’s been winning both wrestling and submission grappling matches for several different promotions. Mokaev has not been quite as active recently but he’s got plenty of grappling experience and is currently undefeated in professional MMA. It’s an important match for both men but for Mokaev in particular, a win would be very valuable in his campaign to rejoin the UFC.
Hype Fighting announced the news that Muhammad Mokaev was stepping in to face Arman Tsarukyan in a grappling match in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
