6/22/26
Manel Kape continues to impress the MMA world and glide through the flyweight division in the UFC. He is now coming off a knockout victory over Kyoji Horiguchi, who is one of the most dangerous fighters in the division and whose only loss in the UFC came to Demetrious Johnson, who many consider to be the greatest fighter of all time. Kape now also holds the record for most knockouts in UFC flyweight history after the win, and he remains the number two fighter in the division. Being on a four-fight win streak and fighting the most elite of them all, he has put himself in the position to be next for the belt after the Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja rematch, which is still to be announced.
Kape is an active fighter who put his title dreams on the line against Horiguchi because Kape only needed to wait for the title window to open up, and he was next in line, but he didn’t want to wait. He wanted to stay active and fight often, even if it meant he would miss out on competing for the belt. A high-risk, high-reward situation, but in the end, he came out on top. It only took him three rounds in a tight back-and-forth battle against Horiguchi, in which Kyoji was getting the better of Kape in certain exchanges. In round three, though, Kape landed a big right hand that wobbled Horiguchi and sent him to the canvas. Manel then followed up with nice ground and pound shots to end the fight and cement himself at the top of the weight class.
Kape will have to wait, though, because former champion Alexandre Pantoja, in all likelihood, is getting the shot at the belt back as he recovers from his freak injury, which led to him losing the title in the first place. For context, current champion Joshua Van won the championship from Pantoja just 40 seconds into their fight after Pantoja tried to brace his fall and dislocated his arm. This led to Van securing the belt instead of a no contest due to te injury. Pantoja is one of the most dominant champions the division has ever seen, and now that he has recovered well, he is ready to fight soon and he is deserving of the championship rematch. Kape is next though and there is little doubt about it. After Van and Pantoja rematch, Kape will take the winner and see if he can dethrone either of the men who reign at the top of the flyweight division.
