Koklyaev has placed third place at the Arnold Strongman Classic in 2006, 2008 and 2013, as well as 2nd in 2009. He was a medalist of all three IFSA World Championships, finishing 3rd in 2005, 2nd in 2006 and 2nd in 2007.

Koklyaev came in second place (with Igor Pedan) at the IFSA Strongman World 2-Man Championship, in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2007. He finished 3rd at the 2010 World’s Strongest Man contest, but failed to make the finals for the 2012 World’s Strongest Man. Koklyaev qualified for the 2013 World’s Strongest Man finals, but had to withdraw due to an earlier injury after the first event. He is a 7-time Strongman Champions League grand prix winner, and finished 3rd overall for both the 2010 and 2012 SCL seasons. Note that his relatively low bench press comes from the fact as a World Class Olympic Weightlifter there is relatively no bench or standing press training as both snatch and clean& jerk are done solely by legs,hip,back strength.

On 20 December 2008, Mikhail totalled 2,149 lbs at a raw powerlifting meet in Chelyabinsk, Russia with a 360 kg (790 lb) squat, 210 kg (460 lb) bench press, and a 405 kg (893 lb) deadlift.

Mikhail won the +125 kg class in the 2012 WPC Raw European Championships on 26 April 2012 with a 340 kg (750 lb) squat, 225 kg (496 lb) bench press, and a 400 kg (880 lb) deadlift.

On 16 December 2012, at the Chelyabinsk region championship, Mikhail had a raw squat of 360 kg (793 lbs), raw bench of 230 kg (507 lbs), and raw deadlift of 417.5 kg (920 lbs), making his raw total 1007.5 kg (2,221 lbs).

On 29 November 2019 Koklyaev made his debut as a professional boxer. He lost to Alexander Emelianenko by technical knockout in the first round.