Manel Kape is keen to fight Kai Kara-France at UFC 296 after their previous match was cancelled due to Kara-France suffering a concussion during training, but claims that Kara-France has been hesitant to accept the proposed rescheduling.
Manel Kape is waiting for Kai Kara-France to agree to a proposed fight at UFC 296, scheduled for December. Initially, the pair were supposed to battle it out in UFC 293, but due to the Kara-France injury, specifically a concussion during training, the match was cancelled. Instead, Kape went to fight against newcomer Felipe dos Santos, emerging victorious after a three-round struggle. Following his victory, Kape received and instantly accepted an offer from UFC to reschedule the much-anticipated fight against Kara-France.
However, according to Kape, Kara-France’s response towards this new offer wasn’t as enthusiastic. In his own words, Kape shared, “I still don’t hear anything from their part,” and “Kai Kara is still thinking about signing the contract. All this energy that was there. It was fake energy. He just doesn’t want to be there. He sees the levels.” Kape suggested that Kara-France might be apprehensive about going head-to-head with him and that he had been waiting for a response to the UFC offer for two weeks. He referenced previous confrontations with Kara-France, particularly at the UFC 293 pre-fight press conference, and maintained that the fighter is avoiding this face-off because he is afraid of losing.
Shifting his focus into the future, Kape pointed that, should Kara-France fail to respond soon, he would be obliged to seek a different opponent in order to fight once more before the year ends. On this matter, he said, “This is the fight that makes sense. People are going to watch, people are going to buy the pay-per-view. It’s good for him, too, and it’s good for me. It’s good to make money. Why he won’t accept? The only answer is he’s scared. He knows he’s going to lose. He’s going to be on a three-fight losing streak. They want to pick an easy fight to get his confidence back.”
Currently, Kape is in Africa planning to head back to Las Vegas to meet his manager about where the situation stands. Kape also made it clear that he had an alternative opponent in mind, should Kara-France continue to shy away from the agreement. He further expressed his interest in fighting Brandon Moreno, who lost the flyweight title to Alexandre Pantoja recently. No developments on Moreno’s upcoming fights are known at the moment. For Kape, the thought of fighting Moreno is intriguing and presents an option he deems worthy of consideration, “We have to think of this option,” Kape said. “It really excites me, and it will make me come back to train and put on the hard work all the time.” However, Kape admitted that everything depended on Kara-France’s final decision.