Kai Kara-France is still reeling over his UFC 269 win.
Kai Kara-France is flying high following his win at UFC 269. He defeated former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt by TKO in the first round of their matchup. The win was probably the biggest of Kara-France’s career so far. The performance shot the 28-year-old to number six in the flyweight rankings. Now, two weeks removed from the event, Kara-France is still in disbelief of his performance. He spoke about his feelings on The Schmo Youtube channel.
“Every morning I wake up and I’m like, ‘Did that really happen?” Kara-France explained. “It couldn’t have gone any better, from the lead-up to the actual fight, and then the finish and getting a bonus, and everyone really doubting me and kinda overlooking me. Especially Cody overlooking me, already telling Dana, ‘I’ll be the alternate for the next flyweight title fight.’
Kara-France has been a staple in the UFC flyweight division since 2018 when he made his promotional debut. Since then, he has only lost two fights, one of which was against champion Brandon Moreno. Despite Kara-France’s résumé, most media attention was on Garbrandt and his move to 125 pounds. Kara-France thought the UFC had a plan to give Garbrandt a title shot off a win and was glad to put a stop to that.
“So yeah, the whole lead-up was a weird one,” Kara-France said. “I knew that I’d been putting in the work, so when I turned up on fight week, I was focused. I only had one person in front of me and that’s all I was focused on, which was Cody. And he’s too busy trying to fight everyone else but me and won’t even acknowledge me. It was kinda like I was set up. He was getting set up for the title shot, and I was just a pawn and a stepping stone for him, to build him up for flyweight. So I was here to spoil the party, and that’s what I did.”
The win over a former champion is sure to give Kara-France a boost in motivation and confidence. He will need this confidence when he takes on Askar Askarov on March 26, as announced yesterday. Because should he win this bout, a title shot will more than likely be waiting for him.
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