This is the UFC 317 live blog for Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Kara-France, the main card flyweight championship bout Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The champion Pantoja is tied (with bantamweight king Merab Dvalishvili) for the No. 3 spot in the MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings. Kara-France enters his title opportunity as the No. 6-ranked fighter at 125 pounds.
Pantoja (29-5) seeks the fourth straight defense of his flyweight title following championship wins over Kai Asakura, Steve Erceg, and Brandon Royval. The Brazilian star has beaten almost every notable name in his weight class, including twice beating Brandon Moreno and Royval, making it difficult for the matchmakers to keep up with his pace. Though he is unlikely to touch Demetrious Johnson’s 11 consecutive flyweight title defenses, Pantoja is well on his way to carving out his own legacy in the division.
The next man up to challenge Pantoja is Kara-France (25-11, 1 NC), who is coming off of a spectacular first-round knockout of Erceg this past August. Though Kara-France didn’t string together a long win streak to earn his shot at Pantoja, his overall body of work is strong as in addition to toppling Erceg he has also beaten the likes of Askar Askarov, Cody Garbrandt, and Tyson Nam. Kara-France can also gain a measure of revenge Saturday as he lost to Pantoja back in 2016 when the two were competitors on The Ultimate Fighter 24.
Check out the UFC 317 live blog for Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Kara-France below.
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