Kiwi’s UFC rise continues
Kiwi Kai Kara-France has continued his march through the UFC’s flyweight division with an impressive all-round victory over Mark De La Rosa in Shenzhen, China.
Up against a renowned grappler, Kara-France (20-7) nullified the American’s strength with superb takedown defence and secured the only knockdown of the fight to earn a unanimous decision win.
Two of the judges had the 26-year-old winning all three rounds at 30-27, while the third scored the bout 29-28.
The result continued a promising start to Kara-France’s UFC career, who went into the fight ranked 10th after winning his first two appearances in the octagon.
And he can expect another rise when the rankings are next updated after extending his overall winning streak to eight, a run that dates back to the end of 2016.
‘‘I took a risk. He is a hard opponent, but another win for us, three in a row in UFC, eight-fight win streak,’’ Kara-France said.
‘‘I’m just going to keep taking out names, there are nine guys ahead of me. I just want to keep fighting, I want to stay active.
‘‘This is the sport that I love. I never have to work a day in my life because I get to travel and get to compete against the world’s best in the highest level in the UFC.’’
De La Rosa (11-3) was making his return to the division after spending his past two fights at bantamweight. And with six of his 11 career wins coming via submission, he always felt he had the edge on the ground.
However, Kara-France never gave him the chance to find out.
De La Rosa showed his intentions early as he went for the takedown and had the Aucklander pinned against the cage.
But Kara-France kept his composure and eventually flipped positions before slamming De La Rosa on his back.
De La Rosa did manage to score a takedown in the closing stages of the round, but KaraFrance was barely on the mat for a second and kept the majority of the contest standing from that point.
He didn’t have it all his own way as a game De La Rosa showcased his boxing skills and found some joy with the right hand.
But Kara-France was landing the heavier blows and took control in the second round when he dropped his opponent with a huge right of his own.
While unable to secure the finish, Kara-France went looking for more damage and varied his strikes, with a well-timed leg kick again sending De La Rosa to the canvas.
De La Rosa continued to press forward and started the final round the busier of the two.
That was until Kara-France exploded with a furious barrage of strikes, which began at the body and ended with blood streaming from De La Rosa’s face.
In total, Kara-France landed 80 significant strikes compared to 47, while blocking six of seven takedown attempts to hand De La Rosa his second-straight defeat.
Despite only being five weeks away, he’s indicated his desire to get straight back to work and join City Kickboxing team-mates Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker on the UFC 243 card in Melbourne on October 6.
Meanwhile, in the main event, Weili Zhang dethroned women’s strawweight champion Jessica Andrade with a first-round stoppage to become the first Chinese fighter to win a UFC title.