Wigan's Muhammad Mokaev reveals he climbed off sickbed to continue UFC title charge

The 23-year-old former Deanery High School and St John Rigby student was awarded a unanimous decision after three gruelling rounds by the judges on his first outing Stateside.

And while he wanted to get the job done inside the distance, Mokaev - who hails from Dagestan, but moved to Wigan as a 12-year-old refugee - could not hide his delight at extending his perfect record.

"I'm feeling great...how can you not feel great after a victory?" said Mokaev, who is now 12-0 as a pro (6-0 in UFC) after enjoying a 23-0 amateur record. "I wanted to finish Alex Perez, I tried my best to do that, but I felt the cage was small, and I had to do a lot of scrambling.

"I couldn't move around much, but listen, iof the cage is small or big, I should be able to do it anywhere, so that's no excuse."

Mokaev felt his achievement was even more impressive given Perez's fine performance.

"I feel like in every single fight, they prepare for me in some special way," he said. "I'm undefeated, a young guy, and they want to beat me, they think I'm all hype.

"They prepare extra for me, they're in shape they've never been in before, they make weight, they're motivated. For me, at 23 years of age, it's a big challenge for me to prepare for that."

Mokaev then revealed he had to show fighting qualities to even make it into the ring.

"I don't know what happened to me overnight," he said. "I had a sore throat last night, and when I woke up I was throwing up.

"My team said to me: 'Listen, you've seen tougher things in your life, do your thing'. So I put my coat on and went for a run, half seven in the morning, and I felt a little bit better, I had another sleep and then I came to the arena.

"Of course I wasn't myself, but I felt like I beat myself by just turning up to fight. I know people will say they didn't like the (points) decision, but I had to beat myself to even be here."

When asked if he considered calling off the fight, Mokaev - who recovered from a serious knee injury last year to continue his charge up the rankings - replied: "Never, never.

"I remember people said, after what happened to my knee, he will never be back. But I've since had two fights against top-10 contenders.

"After I hurt my knee, for two weeks I couldn't even get up, I couldn't go to the toilet in my house, I couldn't walk up the stairs.

"I had to go somewhere, drive...I went to McDonalds a couple of times, on the first floor, because I couldn't walk upstairs. But I beat myself again, I proved that it's all just in the mind, and you can do anything.

"I don't like to win by decision, but I'm only 23 years old...who else - apart from Jon Jones - has done what I've done in two years?

"Of course I would like to have a rest now, relax, but since I came here I've told people I want the title and I will go all the way."

He also welcomed the opportunity to show off his wrestling skills against a real student of the game in Perez.

"He's an American wrestler, he did wrestling at college...I'm from the UK, where they don't have that much wrestling," added Mokaev.

"So I've not done too bad...UK against American wrestling...there was even a suplex in there!"