Muhammad Mokaev is out of his scheduled bout with Adriano Moraes at the Rousey Vs Carano event, and Phumi Nkuta is stepping in on short notice. Most Valuable Promotions said Saturday that Mokaev withdrew because of visa delays, pushing Nkuta into the matchup at a catchweight of 130 pounds.
The Moraes-Nkuta bout will now land on the six-fight preliminary card at MVP’s first MMA event, which is headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano and also includes a welterweight bout between Nate Diaz and Mike Perry. It gives Moraes a new opponent as he makes his first appearance since ending an 18-fight run with ONE Championship.
Nkuta enters the spot unbeaten at 11-0 and brings momentum from March, when he captured the A1 Combat flyweight title with a decision over Namiki Kawahara. He has also taken wins in LFA and Bellator, a record that likely made him a workable late replacement when the original booking fell apart.
Moraes is no stranger to elite competition. During his ONE Championship run, he fought Demetrious Johnson in a trilogy and won the first meeting with a second-round knockout. That history gives the new bout some edge even with the opponent change, because Moraes is still being asked to answer questions in a different promotional setting and at a different weight than originally planned.
The switch leaves the card intact but not untouched. Visa delays have already forced one adjustment, and the next weekend show now asks Moraes to adapt to Nkuta’s unbeaten record rather than the opponent he was preparing for when the bout was first made.
