Kai Kara-France is adamant he is next in line to challenge for the UFC flyweight title, after he produced a devastating first-round knockout of Cody Garbrandt at UFC 269.
Kara-France was one of the stars of a blockbuster card on Saturday night, with Charles Oliveira defending his lightweight crown and Julianna Pena dethroning Amanda Nunes in what has been described as one of the biggest upsets in the sport’s history.
But it was hard to top the Kiwi’s brilliant KO for the performance of the night: Kara-France stunning Garbrandt with two separate combinations to silence his opponent and the many critics who believed the former bantamweight champion would have too much firepower.
It was very much a case of “statement made”, just as Kara-France had predicted pre-fight.
“Yeah it’s pretty satisfying when it all works out,” he told ESPN. “It’s just one of those things where my preparation gave me the confidence and then I just had to stay calm under the bright lights last night. It was a special moment shutting up a lot of doubters.
“A lot of people had counted me out, including Cody. I felt that he wasn’t really taking me seriously, I felt like the whole week he was talking as if he was just going to walk through me. So very satisfying to make a statement on such a big card.”
Kara-France scaled the Octagon cage in the moments that followed his victory, zeroing in on UFC president Dana White as the sellout crowd roared in appreciation.
His message to the boss was simple.
“I just told him, ‘I want a title shot,'” Kara-France said. “I mean, they would have given Cody a title shot if he had beaten me, so why can’t they give me one?
“So I just said, ‘Dana, give me a title shot and a 50K bonus’. And obviously he gave me a 50K bonus for the night and he just said ‘we’ll talk’. So we’ll see what happens.
“I’m just gonna go and celebrate with my family and friends, and enjoy that quality time, and then I’ll sit down with my coaches and come up with the next game plan.”
Asked later whether he’d be prepared to fight on the UFC 271 card, which is being headlined by the rematch between his City Kickboxing teammate Israel Adesanya and Australian Robert Whittaker, in February, Kara-France replied: “Only if it was a title shot.”
While he didn’t backtrack from those comments completely on Sunday, there is little doubt Kara-France believes he is not only ready to fight for the title, but also to bring another belt back to New Zealand.
“It’s all about timing, I’m not gonna say I’m not gonna fight,” he told ESPN. “The fight game changes all the time; people pull out and injuries happen all the time. But I’ve just shown that I’m a frontrunner and a contender for the belt, Brandon Moreno and I had a really good fight the first time, he won, but a lot has changed since then.
“I feel like no one else is doing what I’m doing in the division, against the guys I’m beating, and like I said before, it’s my time now. I can’t wait for 2022 and just to continue this momentum.”
Tai Tuivasa was another big winner at UFC 269, the Australian delivering his own first-round KO of Augusto Sakai to also pick up a $50,000 performance bonus. After both Jimmy Crute and Brad Riddell endured defeats a week earlier in Vegas, UFC 269 proved a far happier night for fighters on both sides of the Tasman Sea.
And Kara-France and Tuivasa are enjoying themselves as a result.
“I was with Tai Tuivasa last night and we had a booth with Dan Hooker and the rest of our teammates, and Tai’s teammates as well,” Kara-France said. “It was great just to be able to be normal, we haven’t been able to do that at all in New Zealand, to socialise. And especially with my wife being there as well, we had a babysitter, it was nice to just be celebrating all the hard work that we put into this.
“Both Tai and I got the bonus last night and we both got big knockouts, and we’ve known each other for years; we lived in Thailand together and my UFC debut was on his headline card in Adelaide. So we’ve both come a long way from where we first started and it’s awesome to be in Vegas pretty much taking over the city.
“It was the ‘Kai and Tai Show’ last night, it was an amazing accomplishment and we are just soaking it in.”