Manel Kape might have to ring Dana White's doorbell after UFC Tampa
TAMPA, Fla. – After one of the most impressive wins of his UFC tenure, Manel Kape has some requests.
Whether or not he’ll see them come to fruition will be another thing entirely, but you know what they say about stranger things …
Kape (20-7 MMA, 5-3 UFC) on Saturday turned the lights out on Bruno Silva (14-6-2 MMA, 4-3 UFC) in the third round of their flyweight fight on the UFC on ESPN 63 main card at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.
The win was Kape’s fifth in six fights, and afterward he said UFC CEO Dana White needs to step up when it comes to putting his career into high gear. He wants a shot at flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, and it’s not just shooting for the stars.
“That’s the truth: (I want to fight the champion),” Kape said at his post-fight news conference. “I know they want to put me to fight somebody else before my time, but it can’t be. I’m tired of this bullsh*t of Kai Kara-France. We’ve been booked two times. He didn’t show up to the first time, and then the second time he didn’t show up again when we were talking and he said he was not ready to fight. Blah blah blah, going to have a son or whatever. I have a daughter, and sometimes I don’t see her all day. … I’ve been doing my things, too. We all have family. We’re all going through things.
“I’m not going to wait for anybody. I’m here a long time in UFC. I’m 31 years old. I’m not going to be 31 forever, so it’s my time to get at the title shot.”
The bad news for Kape is, White said it’s not likely he’ll be next in line for Pantoja, who is coming off a knockout win over Kai Asakura at UFC 310. Pantoja has a unanimous decision win over Kape in early 2021 in what was Kape’s promotional debut.
Before he came to the UFC, Kape was Rizin’s flyweight champion. In that promotion, he was 1-1 against Asakura.
At the very least, Kape wants to get White on the record about things, and if he plays hard to get, he’s not against taking some extra measures.
“Me and Dana are neighbors. We live 10 minutes away from each other,” Kape said.
If I don’t get the conversation, I’m going to his home. I’m going to knock on his door. We live in Summerlin in Vegas, so it’s easy – I’ll catch him.”
Kape’s knockout of Silva was a bounce-back after a decision loss to Muhammad Mokaev in July. Prior to that, Kape was on a five-fight run – though for one of those wins, he missed weight, and he also had to be pulled from a fight with Matheus Nicolau in January when he had a botched weight cut.
Check out Kape’s full post-fight interview above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 63.