Askar Mozharov sees record shrink as fraudulent numbers get exposed ahead of UFC debut

Askar Mozharov is losing fights, but not in typical fashion.

It was revealed this week that the 27-year-old Ukrainian Light Heavyweight prospect’s record may not be as polished as it originally appeared at 25-7. After some digging through its extensive fight database, the team at Sherdog uncovered a multitude of falsifications.

Continuously researching, it was determined that Mozharov’s actual record is believed to be 21-12. However, that changed again today (June 2, 2022) and could keep changing.

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“Following up on something from last night, the Askar Mozharov saga continues,” Sherdog’s Jay Petty tweeted. “Once 21-12, he is now officially 19-12. The Fight Finder team located events he ‘competed’ at, and he was nowhere to be seen. Other event dates shifted, and we have the new tally now. Wild.

“I’ve never seen anything like this at the major level of this sport,” he added. “I’ve seen fraud, fiction and all sorts of nonsense, but to have six nonexistent wins and five very real missing losses is truly shocking.”

Mozharov’s first recorded professional bout came in 2013 and he got his big break in 2021, signing with the Professional Fighter’s League (PFL) following a win in bareknuckle boxing. An injury forced “No Mercy” out of his scheduled clash with Jordan Young and ultimately the promotion, signing with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) shortly after.

Visa issues and another injury pulled Mozharov from anticipated debuts against Ben Rothwell and Dustin Jacoby before now landing Alonzo Menifield this Saturday night (June 4, 2022) at UFC Vegas 56.

“I spent so much time since the age of 18 fighting professional fights and pretty much fighting everyone that I could,” Mozharov said at UFC Vegas 56 media day (h/t MMA Junkie). “I don’t build my record or whatever, but a lot of the fights I had were in China. Those organizations don’t add fights after, so you have to really pursue it to make sure that they add the fights that you had and make sure that you have it on record. This is actually a situation that, in the last seven, eight years, no one mentioned anything. No one said anything. Now that I get up to the biggest promotion, to the UFC, I guess someone or one of the admins wanted to show themself. It’s a little bit weird, right?

“Aside from that, it’s just some situations that I had basically when I was starting this career,” he continued. “I wasn’t even fighting MMA and I took some semi-pro fights. I didn’t know that they were going to be counted toward my record. That was under my name before. When I had a stepfather, I changed my first name. I changed my last name. So there was a little bit of a mix-up with that, but I just focused on the fights and nothing about these records. They don’t really mean much.”

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 56 fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance (on ESPN+) at 4 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 56: “Volkov vs. Rozenstruik” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.