Kai Kara-France has expressed his respect for Alexandre Pantoja but he aims to become the new UFC flyweight champion this weekend in historic fashion. Kara-France challenges for Pantoja's 125-pound belt in the co-main event of UFC 317, which goes down on Saturday, June 28th as part of the promotion's International Fight Week festivities.
During an interview with Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, the New Zealand native had an anecdote relayed to them that Pantoja gave in a separate interview with Bohn regarding Kara-France as someone who feels like a Mike Tyson figure to him. When asking for the title challenger's thoughts on that, Kai Kara-France said,
"It’s definitely an honor to be in the same sentence or to be brought up as the Mike Tyson of the flyweights, but I’m the first Kai Kara-France of the flyweight division. I’ve got my own name to live up to and to write. I said it in my last fight when I fought Steve Erceg—when DC asked me how I have all these knockouts on my record, where does that power come from? I went off the cuff, just speaking my truth, saying it’s because I’m Māori, and that’s my superpower."
"That’s something I tap into, something that anchors me, fuels me, and allows me to make sense of everything. There’s no difference in this fight—I just have a stronger connection to why I’m doing this. Nothing but respect to Pantoja, but the way I respect you is by coming for that belt and coming for your head. I know he hasn’t been knocked out in the UFC and hasn’t been stopped—I want to be the first one to do that and make history. That would be an unreal way to get the belt."
Kai Kara-France and Alexandre Pantoja have met inside the cage before, albeit in a situation that was technically an exhibition bout. The two flyweight standouts did battle on The Ultimate Fighter back in 2016 during a hugely influential period for the 125-pound division, with the TUF cast for that twenty-fourth season being comprised of
Pantoja would end up securing a unanimous decision victory over Kara-France, and now almost a decade later in this quasi-sequel clash that is not technically a rematch in the traditional sense, the two will test skills again.
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