Manel Kape’s confidence is sky high, and he believes a UFC flyweight title fight against Joshua Van would be over in the first round. In fact, he thinks he would treat the new champ “like a punching bag.”
After taking out former flyweight title challenger Brandon Royval inside of one round at UFC on ESPN 73, Kape (22-7 MMA, 7-3 UFC) may convince the UFC brass to place him in the next title fight against Van (16-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC), who recently won the title after Alexandre Pantoja‘s unfortunate injury 26 seconds into their title fight at UFC 323. While nothing is set yet, Kape says the wheels are in motion.
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“I think it’s just a matter of the time,” Kape told MMA Junkie Radio. “They set up everything, and we go through this. I delivered what they asked for. They told me I needed to have a beautiful win, I needed to do something impressive, and I believe I did the most impressive fight – what I was supposed to do.”
Kape said that his management is negotiating with the UFC to get a title fight booked and expects that to be his next fight because, in his eyes, it’s the most exciting fight for the fans. Dispatching Royval (17-9 MMA, 7-5 UFC) inside of one round, after he was in a Fight of the Year nominee against Van at UFC 317, is certainly an impressive feat.
If Van is next for Kape, he expects to make another big fight look very easy – as if Van won’t be able to generate any offense of his own.
“Brandon Royval is an elite fighter,” Kape said. “He beat all these contenders, fighters that come near to the belt, he’s beat all of them. Especially Tatsuro Taira, Moreno recently – like I say, in my opinion, he beat Royval. He’s a head of these guys, you know? I just made this guy look easy. I find the range, I find the time, and it was everything set up.
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“Looking to Joshua Van, his skills and everything, to be honest, I see him like a punching bag. I see someone that’s gonna stay in front of me all the time. Like, his game is the same. He’s like a punching bag. That’s what I see on Joshua Van, and this is not even trash talk. I believe if I fight Joshua Van, my training camp’s gonna be just punching bag. … Me fighting Joshua Van is just gonna be a punching bag workout.”
Kape is currently on a three-fight winning streak, which includes stoppage wins over Bruno Silva, Asu Almabayev, and, most recently, Royval. Go back a little further, and he’s gone 7-1 after his first two UFC bouts, which were decision losses. Kape is currently No. 3 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie flyweight rankings, only behind Van and Pantoja.
If the former champ Pantoja needs time to heal from his unfortunate injuries, Kape believes it’s his turn next rather than Tatsuro Taira, who recently made his own case by stopping former champ Moreno at UFC 323.
“I can see the light in the tunnel,” Kape said. “It’s more close than ever before. Every year, it’s getting more close.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Manel Kape sees Joshua Van fight like ‘a punching bag workout’
