Manel Kape Looks Impressive in Main Event TKO Win
The headline fight of UFC Vegas 103 brought us a collision of top-10 Flyweights. Manel Kape continued his hot streak, notching his third straight win with a TKO of Asu Almabayev. This breaks a staggering 17-fight win streak for the Kazakh contender, and marks his first loss in the UFC.
The fight was largely a measured, technical kickboxing affair. This predictably favored Kape, whose feints, footwork, and hand speed created openings for him to land the more impactful strikes. He opened a cut by Almabayev’s left eye by the end of the first round after landing some hard punches backing him into the fence.
After spending the first round moving backward, Almabayev took more initiative to start the second. In contrast, he was a bit busier, going first more often and finding some success. Manel Kape continued to find some clean punches in isolation. He landed a huge knee to the body, followed by a clean hook that backed Asu Almabayev to the fence again. After a surge of strikes from Kape, Asu complained of an eye poke. Referee Mike Beltran paused the action, but was informed by ringside officials that the replay showed it was a clean punch. This stood in contrast to the replay viewers saw at home. Commentators Jon Anik and Dominic Cruz agreed it was a sort of loosely scraping, open-handed eye poke. Nevertheless, Almabayev was forced to soldier on. Kape was able to capitalize and press forward with a flurry of hard punches against the cage.
Manel Kape continued to have the upper hand in the third. He pressed forward with hard punches to the face, and stuffed several desperate takedowns. He landed yet another pawing poke to the eyes of Asu Almabayev, who protested. This time, Beltran disregarded it entirely. Kape took full advantage, charging forward and landing a series of heavy knees to the body and punches to the head as his opponent attempted to cover up. Then, Almabayev channeled Joe Frazier versus George Foreman as he ran away with his back to Kape; this is never a good sign. Kape followed close on his heels, winging punches around the side of his head until Mike Beltran had seen enough and stopped the contest.
Kape Eyes Title Shot After Emphatic Win
Unfortunately, the win will be somewhat controversial for Kape. He got away with two eye pokes. At minimum, Almabayev should have gotten time to recover in both instances. Arguably, the referee could have awarded a point for the infractions. However, the onus is not on Manel Kape to stop fighting when a foul occurs. If fans take issue, it should be directed at Mike Beltran for failing to identify the pokes. Nevertheless, it does cast a bit of a shadow on what was an otherwise fantastic performance.
Regardless of the undesirable circumstances, Kape looked great. He showcased excellent feints, footwork, and timing. His slick striking mystified Almabayev and left him guessing. Fans and pundits had questioned Kape’s ability to deal with an elite grappler after his loss to the since-fired Muhammad Mokaev. “Starboy” answered emphatically by denying all six of his opponent’s takedown attempts.
In the post-fight interview, Kape enthusiastically demanded a title fight.
“You gonna deny my title shot again? I’m the best! I’m the Starboy! I am gonna steal that belt like I’m stealing candy from my daughter!”
It would seem that Manel Kape may very well get his wish. He went into the fight as the #6 Flyweight, and was fighting down in ranking versus #8 Almabayev. However, champion Alexandre Pantoja has nearly cleaned out the division. Among fighters currently ranked over Kape, none has a strong claim to challenge ahead of him. Royval and Moreno have both lost twice to Pantoja. Albazi and Taira are each coming off of losses. So despite his spot outside the top 5 (which will likely improve), Kape seems to make the most sense, especially if Pantoja gets the better of Kai Kara France in their upcoming title clash. If given the opportunity against Pantoja, Kape will seek to avenge a loss from 2021. Kara France may have something to say about this, but it would make for a great narrative moving forward in the Flyweight division.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
