Rivalries: Manel Kape

Manel Kape looks to be picking up steam in the Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight division.

Having crept into the Top 10 at 125 pounds, the 29-year-old AKA Thailand product will lock horns with the unbeaten Chute Boxe prospect Felipe dos Santos in a featured UFC 293 attraction on Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney. Kape steps back into the spotlight with the wind of a three-fight winning streak at his back. He last competed at UFC Fight Night 216, where he outpointed David Dvorak to a unanimous decision on Dec. 17.

As Kape moves ever closer to his forthcoming clash with dos Santos, a look at a few of the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:

Kyoji Horiguchi

The Japanese superstar eliminated Kape in the Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight grand prix, as he disposed of “Starboy” with an arm-triangle choke in the third round of their tournament semifinal on Dec. 31, 2017 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Horiguchi brought it to a close 4:27 into Round 3. The American Top Team rep darted in and out with combinations, invested in leg kicks and gave Kape pause with more than one right hand. Horiguchi also countered effectively, held his own in the clinch, leaned on outstanding takedown defense and ignored his opponent’s repeated attempts to bait him into a brawl. By the time they arrived at the third round, his superiority had been firmly established. Horiguchi kept his foot on the gas until a clash of heads midway through the final period nearly knocked him senseless. He recovered enough with the time he was given to withstand Kape’s final surge and surprise the Angola native with a takedown. From there, Horiguchi climbed to full mount, slid into position for the arm-triangle and prompted the tapout.

Kai Asakura

Kape laid claim to the vacant Rizin Fighting Federation bantamweight championship when he turned away the Tri-Force Akasaka standout with punches in the second round of their Rizin 20 main event on Dec. 31, 2019 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Asakura—who had won their previous meeting via split decision some 20 months earlier—succumbed to blows 38 seconds into Round 2. Neither man paid much attention to defense in a back-and-forth first round that saw them exchange at distance and in the clinch. Early in the second, Kape decked his counterpart with a brutal right cross, gave chase with punches, floored him a second time and forced the stoppage with a sustained burst of ground-and-pound.

Alexandre Pantoja

“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 24 semifinalist called upon superior output and consistency, as he took a unanimous decision from Kape in a UFC Fight Night 184 flyweight showcase on Feb. 6, 2021 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Scores were 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27. Kape had his moments but suffered from too much inactivity in his promotional debut. He landed a glancing cartwheel kick in the first round, snuck in stabbing left hands and connected with a crisp two-punch combination in the third, punctuated by a right hook. Pantoja applied heavy forward pressure throughout, attacked the legs and body with kicks, countered when the situation called for it and denied the organizational newcomer’s bids for takedowns. “The Cannibal” now reigns as the undisputed UFC flyweight champion.

Zhalgas Zhumagulov

Kape started to rebuild his brand following weight-cutting issues and blew away the onetime Fight Nights Global champion with first-round punches as part of the UFC on ESPN 31 undercard on Dec. 4, 2021 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The end came 4:02 into Round 1. Zhumagulov was the aggressor at the start but played with fire one too many times. Kape sat down the Kazakhstan native with a blinding left hook-right cross combination in the center of the cage, pressured him into the fence and uncorked a devastating volley of power punches from both hands until he folded. It was Zhumagulov’s first stoppage loss since in almost six years.