UFC President Dana White had a juicy tidbit to impart: Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja must defend his championship against Kai Kara-France June 28 in Las Vegas. Taking huge billing as the co-main event, the online buzz surrounding the bout races a few hyped voices against the skeptical ones.
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Pantoja has been a dominant force in this division and has never had a loss in any rematch, putting some intriguingly fueled sheen into this match. On the other hand, Kara-France has never won any of his rematches, without being able to get past the top three ranked guys in the division. Somehow, this didn’t stop the UFC from booking the fight, with the fans divided on whether this is a match-up waiting to go down or just a mismatch.
Victor Damone Jr. went straight in for the kill, calling the fight boring and summarizing all of Kara-France’s losses against the heavyweights: “KKF literally lost to #1, #2 & #3 but I’m supposed to believe that because KKF beat Erceg (who Pantoja also beat) that KKF is going to beat Pantoja? Nah, not happening.”
Others, like FCB.Lex, called Kara-France a bum and predicted that Pantoja would destroy him with extreme violence.
Azeem fired back at the doubters, telling them, “Watch this space bro,” alluding to Kara-France’s speed and frame: “His speed and his frame is too fast and he’s too big for that puta madre,” himself referring to the pushover supposedly going to be dismantled by Kara-France.
Then, we got a different class of people, just thrilled about the potential for this to become a wild fight everywhere. “This is gonna be an extremely fast-paced fight lol,” Sah chimed in, with George simply calling it “FIRE.” Even Verbal Sparring MMA acknowledged the historical context and called this the “rematch nine years in the making.”
The opposite comes from Ashwani The Phenomenal, who poses a seemingly valid question concerning Pantoja: “Why don’t people talk about Pantoja enough? He defended it more times & never stepped back from a challenge.” Stitch UFC joined the lament, blaming casual viewers for the neglect of the flyweight division. “125 has been overlooked by casual fans the entire time the division has existed. Sad too flyweight fights are wild,” they said.
Rob, yet another casual fan, is shaking his head at the really under-hyped fight. “I hate that this fight is being so overshadowed, it will be a BANGER,” stated the man.
Opinions are literally everywhere. Some say Pantoja will run right over Kara-France. Some say Kara-France might just have what it takes, and a few are just hyped to see two lively fighters get at it.
What is for sure is that June 28 is going to deliver some interesting action. Team Pantoja or Team Kara-France (or just here for the chaos), this co-main is a rarity; it will either silence all the doubters or give legitimacy to their words.
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Don’t you think, at the very least, the fight will ensure whether Pantoja can also maintain his undefeated rematch status or if Kara-France might just finally rewrite history? Vegas better be ready anyway!