Saidyokub Kakhramonov hopes UFC call comes after Alex Caceres win: 'I took his job'

USA Today

27-06-2025

Saidyokub Kakhramonov will continue to hope – but he refuses to beg.
It's been nearly three years since Kakhramonov (12-3) departed the UFC roster with a 2-1 record, and a lot has happened since. He's 6-0 in combat sports, including 2-0 in MMA. But the biggest victory, Kakhramonov says, is the strides he's made as a human.
"At this point, I think I'm just ready to be a company man and just work with people," Kakhramonov said. "Not that I wasn't before, but before, I was young. I didn't care. I came to this country in 2010. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I had to learn the culture over there. People out there are different. They don't care. Everyone is just like, 'F*ck you, f*ck that, f*ck off.' They're forward. It's a Brooklyn thing, so I always had that. But eventually, you get older, and you understand the other half of the world, that's not how it operates. You have to be smart and make the right choices."
Kakhramonov's UFC release was surprising to most who paid attention, and the circumstances around it aren't totally clear. He put forth two fairly dominant performances against Trevin Jones and Ronnie Lawrence before he lost to Said Nurmagomedov in a fight he was largely winning.
"You have to be smart and make the right choices," Kakhramonov said. "A little moment of your life can change the next 20 or 30 years of your life. You don't want that for your future. I think that's what I learned. Now, it's just things that are smooth for me. I live a good life and everything is not bad. I have a good team around me and a good gym. I train out of Valle Flow. The people out there are amazing. I have good coaches and good management. Overall, everything is very good right now for me."
Kakhramonov's improvements inside the cage have also been notable. He recently defeated longtime UFC alum Alex Caceres, and credits Valle Flow Systems Academy in Bensenville, lll., for the dominant performance. He trained alongside the likes of Belal Muhammad, Yair Rodriguez, and Ignacio Bahamondes in preparation.
I'd say it's one of the top gyms in America if not in all of North America," Kakhramonov said. "We have an unbelievable team with great coaches. Mike Valle is a smart guy. He's always on top of his game. Even though he travels for fights, he makes sure we are training. Most of the gyms when coaches leave for fights, there's no one training. Here, it's an amazing team. People train hard, and everyone is pushing each other. It's like a little family out here. It's great to be out there."
Caceres indicated prior to the fight that the promotion hadn't totally parted ways with him and was just allowing him to take the Dirty Boxing bout. So while Kakhramonov isn't sure what exactly will be next, he thinks beating a fighter like Caceres could put him back int the UFC's good graces if he isn't already.
"I expected that definitely, but a lot of people didn't expect that," Kakhramonov said. "Look at it this way. I just took his job. It was a hand-to-hand fight. It was boxing, yeah. It was elbows, yeah. I just actually cut him pretty badly with one of the spinning elbows. I legit told him, 'Oh, man. Your face is f*cked up.' During the fight, I told him that. You can see it every time we clashed, I was throwing him around. Even if it was MMA, the outcome would be the same – besides his kicks. All you've got to do is go left to avoid his kicks. It's not a big headache. I took his job and I don't think they're going to re-sign him after this fight. I came up a weight class. I'm a bantamweight and I destroyed him 30-27. I was very close to finishing the fight. I mean, why would they want to re-sign him when they can re-sign me?"
Kakhramonov, 29, plans to stay ready, should the UFC call him for a short notice bout. UFC 319 takes place in Chicago, not far from his training home. Kakhramonov would love it to work out, but he's not going to pelad.
"Chicago has a lot of Uzbek community, a lot of Russians, and all of those people who came from those regions. Being on the UFC card in Chicago, it'd be legendary," Kakhramonov said. "... (But) I'm not one of those guys who wants to beg anyone. There are so many begging. You know how it is. I just let the work do the job and I've just got to keep winning and eventually they can't deny me."