The time has neared for Israel Adesanya to finally take on Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305, scheduled to be held in the RAC Arena, Perth, on the 18th of August, and settle the ‘real African’ debate after Dana White mistakenly revealed the main card for the event. UFC 305 would also feature Kai Kara-France and Steve Erceg. But things went haywire as the #4 flyweight fighter expected to fight someone else.

If you guessed it already, congratulations! It is indeed Manel Kape that Kara-France wanted to go against in his next fight. Let’s see what the New Zealander had to say about it, shall we?

Kai Kara-France expected a fight with Manel Kape at UFC 305

In the UFC 305 press conference, a reporter asked ‘Don’t Blink’ about his thoughts about fighting Erceg. The Australian has been climbing the ladder to the top pretty fast. Despite his loss against Alexandre Pantoja a UFC 301, Erceg earned himself quite some fame. But he wasn’t the fighter that Kara-France wanted to fight.

The New Zealander claimed to have thought that it would be Manel Kape who would land against him. The bad blood between the two has often conquered the headlines. And needless to say, that was the fight that excited ‘Don’t Blink’ more.

He said, “Steve’s name came across maybe a month ago, maybe a little longer than that. I was just telling the UFC,  I wanna fight on this card. Just give me anyone. There’s actually not many people available in the top 5. So, when the name came across, I thought I would be fighting Manel, to be honest. I thought that was the fight the UFC was gonna make. There’s such a big history behind that, you know. Him throwing a bottle at me at press conference. And he’s just an idiot, you know. I wanted to humble him. That’s the fight I really wanted.”

But this wasn’t the first time when Kara-France wanted to land against Kape. But how did the rivalry between the two began? Let’s find out.

The rivalry between Kara-France and Kape

It all began when Kara-France had to pull out of his fight in UFC 293, due to a concussion that he got while training. But things escalated as ‘Starboy’ hurled a bottle at ‘Don’t Blink’ during the press conference for UFC 293. Needless to say, ‘Don’t Blink’ didn’t sit quietly after the disrespect. On UFC 293 Q&A, the fighter claimed that Kape was somewhat unstable and that he should instead worry about his own opponent.

Although Kara-France withdrew from the event, Kape took on Felipe dos Santos and defeated him. And he got newfound courage to call out Kara-France for a fight. In an X-rated rant after the win, Kape challenged Kara-France and said, “If you refuse again to fight me or pull two weeks out from the fight, I’m going to your city. I’m going to your academy. I’m going to spar you there… All your teammates are a bunch of ****.”

The tension between the fighters was indeed quite high. But do you think the fight between Kara-France and Kape would have been a better and more exciting matchup for UFC 305? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.