When the UFC was announced to be returning to Australia on August 17, two top flyweights were sure to be in action at UFC 305.
The #4-ranked Kai Kara-France has had the opportunity to fight close to home several times during his UFC career but not since February of 2020.
#7-ranked Steve Erceg, on the other hand, has travelled with the Octagon to Canada, the United States and Brazil but this will be his first time fighting under the UFC banner with home fans backing him.
Unfortunately for those fans, there may be a bit of a divide caused by this Australia versus New Zealand clash that Erceg would have rather skipped over if that had been an option.
Steve Erceg Says His Respect For Kai Kara-France Makes Fighting Someone Else More Desirable
In a recent interview on Just Scrap Radio for BJPenn.com, Erceg revealed how this match-up wasn't desirable for him at first.
There was no way he was going to miss out on the opportunity to fight in his hometown of Perth and given that his last fight was for the title, it was always going to be a highly-ranked opponent.
With both he and Kara-France pushing for this card, pairing them together makes a lot of sense. But the two men have been aware of one another for a long time during their climbs up the regional scenes.
Erceg spoke about how his opponent has always been someone he admired so fighting another name at the top of the rankings would have been his chosen route.
I mean I'm excited I'm getting to fight a good guy. I would have preferred it to be someone not from this region just cuz yeah, somebody I've looked up to for a while. I was an amateur when he was a pro in like the top of the Australian-New Zealand MMA scene so I wanted to avoid him if I could but he got offered and I'm not going to turn people down. He's in the same boat that I am, we're both looking for the same thing so if it has to be, it will be and we'll find out who the better guy is.