Alexandre Pantoja sees Kai Kara-France as Mike Tyson-level knockout threat at UFC 317
Alexandre Pantoja sees Kai Kara-France as Mike Tyson-level knockout threat at UFC 317
Alexandre Pantoja thinks highly of Kai Kara-France's knockout power and will be weary of it going into their UFC 317 title showdown.
The reigning UFC flyweight champion Pantoja (29-5 MMA, 13-3 UFC) has tasted the hands of Kara-France (25-11 MMA, 8-4 UFC) before. They met in a two-round exhibition on Season 24 of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series in 2016, with Pantoja winning by unanimous decision. Now they rematch with the highest possible stakes in the sport on June 28 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view).
Pantoja has put together a reign of terror over the 125-pound weight class, and has already racked up three consecutive title defenses within a seven-fight winning streak overall. The Brazilian is arguably the UFC's most dominant champ, but even he admits Kara-France brings a different degree of danger than other contenders, and especially the one he faced almost a decade ago under far different circumstances.
"I'm not playing when I get into the octagon," Pantoja told MMA Junkie. "It's kill or die. I fight with my soul every time and that's why everyone stops to watch my fights. I have the opportunity to do it one more time with Kai Kara-France. The guy with the powerful hands. I feel Kai-Kara France is like a Mike Tyson. I'm going to fight with someone who can knock me down and that makes me pay a lot of attention to his hands. That's a good challenge. I need challengers to train, I need challengers to live."
Pantoja, No. 3 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie pound-for-pound rankings and No. 1 at flyweight, said he is fully focused on further establishing his legacy in the division against No. 8-ranked Kara-France.
Already having run through many of the division's top contenders, and some of them twice over, Pantoja would have every reason to be complacent in his position. That's not in his DNA, though, and instead he is trying to hone in on and overcome the difficulty in every successive fight.
With this one, it's the threat Kara-France brings on the feet. Does that mean he'll try to engage with the New Zealander as little as possible when standing? Pantoja hinted that could be far from the case.
"He can knock you out with one punch," Pantoja said. "I need to pay attention to that. If I see him like Mike Tyson, maybe I need to be more like Muhammad Ali. I need movement. But if he tries to hit me, I have a very good chin. I've proved that many times. I don't want to prove that a lot. I want to move my head more. That's something I've really worked on. But I have strong hands, too, and that's going to be an amazing opportunity to prove to everyone that I have strong hands.
"If you want to hit me, you need to know I'm going to hit you, too. I have strong hands. Maybe it's going to be a good opportunity to knock someone out. Kai Kara-France is a good fighter. Very competitive, high-level fighter and is going to be a good challenge for me."
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