Manel Kape let his fists do the talking on Saturday night when he demolished Brandon Royval inside the first round to win the UFC Vegas 112 main event, and now, he\u2019s gunning for gold in his next fight.<\/p>\n
A perennial contender since first arriving in the UFC, Kape has often been the victim of bad timing and injuries robbing him of bigger and better opportunities but after dispatching Royval in such impressive fashion, the 33-year-old flyweight doesn\u2019t see any other option but a title shot next. With new UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van still awaiting his next assignment, Kape believes he\u2019s done more than enough to earn the next crack at the belt and he\u2019s already visualized exactly how that fight plays out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is already in my mind a long time ago,\u201d Kape said about fighting Van during the UFC Vegas 112 post-fight press conference. \u201cI will knock out Joshua Van as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know they have hands for me. Five rounds, I can take a lot of time. I can take my time. I can shine but if they make a mistake, I will knock him out in the first round. Like I said, I want to play with my food in the first round, and then in the second round, I can do my job. Ain\u2019t going to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van became champion at UFC 323 after Alexandre Pantoja suffered a freak injury just seconds into the opening round. While it\u2019s almost a certainty that Pantoja gets an immediate title shot upon his return, he still hasn\u2019t received a full diagnosis on his injuries to know for certain when he\u2019ll be able to compete again.<\/p>\n
With Pantoja out of action, Kape is confident that finishing Royval in the first round makes exactly the kind of statement he needed to earn the title fight.<\/p>\n
In fact, Kape believes he\u2019s already on Van\u2019s mind, especially after he needed less than five minutes to dispose of an opponent who just went three full rounds with the future flyweight champion back in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s scared already,\u201d Kape said about Van. \u201cHe knows it\u2019s about to go down. He knows. He didn\u2019t say anything because he knows I\u2019m about to go down. I\u2019m coming hard. 2026, I\u2019m coming very hard. I\u2019m coming with a lot of investments, a lot of sponsors. I\u2019ll be more ready. I\u2019ll be more sharp. I\u2019ll be very focused. I will not have time to distractions in my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll eat, sleep and think about him everyday. Believe me. Everyday. Until I take that gold, I\u2019m going to think about him everyday. He\u2019s going to sleep and dream about me. I\u2019m going to be the worst nightmare he\u2019s going to have in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to argue with Kape and Van putting on a potential Fight of the Year given the way they both typically like to stand and trade but Tatsuro Taira certainly has his own argument for a title shot.<\/p>\n
Taira just scored a decisive first-round finish over former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno at UFC 323 and then he sat just few feet away to watch Van claim the 125-pound title with his win over Pantoja.<\/p>\n
While Taira might believe he\u2019s in the conversation, Kape is quick to shut down any talk about him as a legitimate title contender over him right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if someone believes this, they don\u2019t know nothing about math,\u201d Kape said when addressing Taira. \u201c2+2 is not 6 \u2014 it\u2019s 4. Brandon Royval just beat Taira. He break him, mental and physical. I beat Brandon Royval in one round. So do the math.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why people talk about Taira. When you see me fight, you see my style. There is no room for my name to be near to him. We are different [people], we are different fighters. I bring excitement. I bring finishes. Ain\u2019t no boring. This guy just knows how to say \u2018I\u2019m happy.\u2019 I\u2019m the best investment. I\u2019m the smart investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing has been decided yet but Kape is confident the UFC ultimately makes the right call when it comes to the next flyweight title fight.<\/p>\n
Add to that, Kape wants to stay busy and he\u2019s ready to sign on the dotted line to face Van as soon as the UFC decides on a date to put the gold up for grabs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UFC is a smart and intelligent company,\u201d Kape said. \u201cThey did the best investments and we have now a very successful company. If they want to be still smart, they have to invest in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c[I want to fight] as soon as possible. I want to have this feeling again. What I\u2019m feeling right now, I want to have these feelings. Because the fight is not over. The celebration is going to be when I have my belt with me. That\u2019s when I\u2019m going to have my celebration. As soon as possible, the UFC wants to book me, I\u2019ll be there, I will show up, I will fight and I will win and I will get the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n
UPDATE: On Sunday, Van sent a message to Kape inviting him to fight him in his hometown of Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manel Kape let his fists do the talking on Saturday night when he demolished Brandon Royval inside the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-345524","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-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345524","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=345524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}