LAS VEGAS – Kai Kara-France is looking to break into flyweight title contention.
Kara-France (20-7 MMA, 3-0 UFC) takes on Brandon Moreno (15-5-1 MMA, 4-2-1 UFC) on Saturday at UFC 245 in a flyweight division that is full of hungry contenders.
Kara-France, who hasn’t lost a fight in nearly three years, thinks few can match his body of work in the division – especially if he gets past Moreno.
“He’s No. 5 (in the UFC rankings). I’m No. 6 (and) I’m on an eight-fight win streak,” Kara-France told MMA Junkie at Thursday’s UFC 245 media day. “I get past Brendan – when I do get past Brendan – I’m on a nine-fight win streak. There’s not many guys doing that in this division. So I feel like that really adds to my campaign and will separate me from the pack.”
It will be the Kiwi’s first fight in the United States, and he’s relishing the opportunity to be on the big stage on such a stacked card.
“I never want to be in a boring fight,” Kara-France said. “I always want to make a statement, and what a place to do it – in Vegas, the fight capital of the world. (It’s) one of the biggest cards of the year, three title fights, so I’m coming in there and taking everything that I deserve. I’ve been doing this for a while now. This will be my 32nd professional fight, including my ‘Ultimate Fighter’ fights, so these big occasions won’t really get to me.
“People will say the bright lights and the bigger cards, the more the pressure – but I actually welcome that. I want more pressure on because I feel like that brings the better Kai out of me. So I can’t wait for Saturday night, and I can’t wait for Brandon to bring the fight to me and put a show on for the American fans.”
Training out of City Kickboxing in Auckland, New Zealand, Kara-France joins his teammate Alexander Volkanovski, who has an opportunity to bring a second UFC title to the gym when he challenges Max Holloway for the featherweight title on the same night.
Israel Adesanya unified the UFC middleweight titles when he took out Robert Whittaker at UFC 243, and Kara-France has taken inspiration from his team’s recent success.
“Just being in the same room as these guys and seeing what they’re able to do and produce in the cage, it’s pretty inspiring,” Kara-France said. “And I was here in Melbourne when Izzy, my teammate, won the middleweight title for UFC 243 in Melbourne in front of 60,000 people. It doesn’t get much bigger than that, and we pretty much just stemmed onto this for UFC 245 in Vegas.”
Originally scheduled to face Sergio Pettis, who eventually opted to sign with Bellator, Kara-France admitted that he may have missed an opportunity to take on one of the bigger names in the division. But he still sees a formidable opponent in former “Ultimate Fighter” castmate Moreno.
“I’m expecting him to come forward and bring the fight to me,” Kara-France said. “He’s Mexican; he comes from a Mexican background. I fought a few before. They’ve all got hard heads. They’re all tough as hell. So I’m expecting a war.”
