Asu Almabayev left the Octagon with extra than simply his first UFC loss on Saturday night time.
Almabayev clashed with Manel Kape within the night’s important occasion on only a few weeks’ discover after Kape’s authentic opponent Brandon Royval bowed out of the bout. Almabayev walked into the struggle on a powerful 17-fight win streak, nevertheless it was ‘Starboy’ who would come out on prime, handily defeating the Kazakh and incomes himself a third-round TKO.
Nonetheless, the win did include a heap of controversy after Kape inadvertently poked Almabayev within the eye throughout the opening rounds after which appeared to scrape his opponent’s eye a number of instances earlier than the stoppage got here.
Holy shit!!! After additional evaluation Manel Kape must be disqualified. He actually pulled a Chris Weidman & double eye poked him for a end.
Don’t consider me?? Right here’s the gradual mo the place you possibly can clearly see he eye pokes him with each palms. These weren’t even the first pokes pic.twitter.com/olvqDXSqQJ
— MMA Joey (@MMAJOEYC) March 2, 2025
On Tuesday, an image of Almabayev’s injured eye popped up Instagram and it’s not a reasonably sight.
Muhammad Mokaev reacts to kape’s controversial win over almabayev
It’s removed from the primary time that Kape has discovered himself on the middle of controversy. All through his profession, ‘Starboy’ has been accused of poking eyes and delivering low blows. He even acquired into a couple of pre-fight brawls with Muhammad Mokaev earlier than the 2 stepped contained in the Octagon in July.
Reacting to Kape’s newest win, Mokaev labeled the Angolan a “dirty fighter.”
“Dirty fighter. Popped on steroids. Eye poked and didn’t even stopped, when I eyed poked you I stoped and let you recover!” Mokaev posted on X. “I apologised for no matter occurred between us and I assumed it ended however you continue to speaking s— about me in each interview! as a result of reside in your head, I beat you not even in my prime and pull your pants down in entrance of the entire world!
“And you will be my son for rest of life!”
Mokaev defeated Kape by way of unanimous choice earlier than being promptly minimize by the UFC.
