In his bid to assume the throne of the UFC’s flyweight division, Kai Kara-France couldn’t knock off the reigning king.
The 32-year-old Kiwi fell to Brazilian Alexandre Pantoja in Las Vegas at UFC 317, being submitted by a rear naked choke in the third round.
It was the second timeKara-France’s bid for UFC gold ended in a third-round stoppage, following his TKO loss to Brandon Moreno for the interim belt in 2022.
This one will be a more disappointing loss for the challenger, though. In a bout that Kara-France had been preparing and waiting for all year, he was unable to show the best of his abilities.
The credit for that goes to the champion, who pressured Kara-France from the outset and had success grappling early, which made the Kiwi more hesitant to commit on the feet.
While Kara-France has become known for his elite takedown defence, Pantoja was able to get him on to the canvas inside the first three minutes of the fight and spent the majority of the first round controlling Kara-France on the mat.
The champion was ready with submissions if Kara-France made mistakes, at one point looking to have a decent attempt at an arm triangle before Kara-France fought it off.
After one-way traffic in the first round, the Kiwi was able to show a little bit more of what he had in his toolkit in the second round. He thwarted Pantoja’s attempts to take the fight back to the floor and was able to land a couple of good shots as the champion slowed down later in the round.
The third round was similar to the first. Pantoja raced forward behind his punches, looking to make the fight messy and get close enough to put his hands on his Kiwi rival. He was able to do so about 30 seconds into the round and, despite Kara-France initially defending the takedown attempt, the Brazilian hung on and dragged Kara-France to the mat.
Alexandre Pantoja submitted Kai Kara-France in the third round to reclaim the UFC flyweight championship. Photo / Getty Images
From there, he was able to hold Kara-France and try to set up submissions. Once he got a free arm, he wrapped up the Kiwi’s neck and squeezed.
While Kara-France attacked the hands to break the grip, Pantoja was able to get his hands locked again and after a third time, Kara-France tapped out.
In the main event, former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria added the lightweight title to his collection with a first-round knockout over Charles Oliveira.
Topuria has become known for his knockout power, coming into the bout after stopping featherweight legends Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
It was on show again against Oliveira, who wilted after Topuria caught him with a short one-two combination to the chin.
The win earned Topuria a US$50,000 ($82,466) performance bonus. Middleweight Gregory Rodrigues also got a performance bonus for his knockout win over Jack Hermansson, while fight-of-the-night bonuses went to flyweights Brandon Royval and Joshua Van for their brawl, which Van won on the scorecards.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
