{"id":322114,"date":"2025-12-03T06:11:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T06:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/322114\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T06:11:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T06:11:17","slug":"kai-kara-france-discussing-125ers-exciting-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/322114\/","title":{"rendered":"Kai Kara-France: Discussing 125er’s Exciting Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kai Kara-France<\/a> (25-12, 1 NC MMA, 9-4 UFC) has had an up and down career in MMA, including a 2013 fight that resulted in a no-contest inside the second round of the bout vs. Gustavo Falciroli in Australian Fighting Championship. The fight that evening was waved off after Kara-France fell out of the ring and bumped his head, rendering unable to proceed.<\/p>\n

Recently, though, Kara-France announced he\u2019d be taking time away from active competition in MMA and was pulled from the UFC\u2019s flyweight rankings to tend to personal matters. At the time of Kai Kara-France notifying UFC officials that he\u2019d be taking a pause on his career, he\u2019d been ranked No. 5 at 125.<\/p>\n

Prior to stepping away for the moment from competition, he\u2019d fought for the UFC Flyweight Championship during UFC 317, losing to Alexandre Pantoja<\/a> (30-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) by way of third-round submission due to a rear-naked choke. The outspoken Kiwi had fellow New Zealanders optimistic. Despite being a +250 underdog, some pundits advised to activate your $75 free chip no deposit \u2014 NZ real money<\/a> was coming into online books. But the oddsmakers were right, and Kai Kara-France was handed his third loss in his last five fights.
Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of yet, Kara-France has given no indication that the June 28 loss in Enterprise, NV will be his final appearance in the sport. At the same time, however, this begs a simple question:<\/p>\n

Is This The End of Kai Kara-France\u2019s Run in MMA?<\/p>\n

Whether or not June 28\u2019s defeat to Alexandre Pantoja turns out to be Kara-France\u2019s MMA swan song is up to him and him alone. Given that he\u2019s committed to taking a year off from fights, one would think that he\u2019s starting to consider other opportunities in his life outside of the sport.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s only had 13 UFC fights up to now, his 8-5 record under Dana White\u2019s promotional banner signifies that he\u2019s had some struggles throughout his tenure. Today, we\u2019ll be taking a look at the ups and downs of his stint in the world of MMA.<\/p>\n

Kai Kara-France Goes on Four-Fight Winning Streak on Regional Circuit<\/p>\n

In the second half of 2013, Kai Kara-France had already competed in six professional MMA fights, going 3-3 in that span. Fast forward to August of that year, when he faced off against Ho Jun Kim in Pro Fighting 8.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Kara-France to end the fight, stopping his opponent inside the opening round with a kick to the head. This set off a five-fight unbeaten streak, counting the no-contest in December of 2013.<\/p>\n

A three-fight losing streak ensued for him before he found his way back to victory lane for a five-fight winning streak and championship victory in Bragging Rights 7 with a first-round knockout victory over Shantaram Maharaj. This led to MMA\u2019s top promotion giving Kai Kara-France an opportunity in 2016.<\/p>\n


\"\"<\/a>
Kai-Kara France Cast on TUF, Falls Short of UFC Deal<\/p>\n

Ahead of the fall 2016 season of The Ultimate Fighter<\/a>\u00a0television series, Kai Kara-France was confirmed to be part of the cast. He wouldn\u2019t receive a UFC contract by way of\u00a0TUF,\u00a0losing to Alexandre Pantoja by way of decision after two rounds in the semifinal phase (quarterfinal and semifinal fights on The Ultimate Fighter\u00a0are two-round exhibitions.)<\/p>\n

Undeterred, Kara-France continued his winning ways in 2017, finishing two of his four opponents that year and at the end of 2018, he made his UFC debut on the final FS1 UFC Fight Night, securing a unanimous decision victory over Elias Grace. In so doing, he pocketed the $50,000 (USD) bonus for the Fight of the Night after the show.<\/p>\n

He fought three times in 2019, going 2-1 before 2020 hit. Against the backdrop of a modified schedule\u00a0<\/a>due to COVID-19, he went 1-1. After rebounding with a three-fight winning streak post-pandemic, trouble hit.<\/p>\n

Kai Kara-France Goes 1-3 Before Hiatus<\/p>\n

By the end of 2023, Kara-France dropped two fights in succession. Brandon Moreno connected on a kick to the liver in the third round of their fight in June of 2022 before Kara-France lost on the scorecards (split decision) to Amir Albazi in the main event from the UFC Apex.<\/p>\n

Although Kai Kara-France secured a first-round knockout victory over Steve Erceg in UFC 305 last year, this was the lone win in that stretch. In the aftermath of the defeat to Pantoja<\/a>, Kara-France now finds himself at a crossroads.<\/p>\n

Whether he\u2019s still an active fighter at this time in 2026 is anybody\u2019s guess, but one thing is for certain: He\u2019s got plenty of thinking to do between now and then.<\/p>\n

Image credit: IMAGO\/ZUMA Press Wire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kai Kara-France (25-12, 1 NC MMA, 9-4 UFC) has had an up and down career in MMA, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-322114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}