{"id":222974,"date":"2025-06-29T03:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T03:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222974\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T03:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T03:33:14","slug":"kara-france-v-pantoja-live-updates-from-ufc-317-in-las-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222974\/","title":{"rendered":"Kara-France v Pantoja: Live updates from UFC 317 in Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Advertisement<a class=\"ad__link\" data-test-ui=\"ad__link\" href=\"https:\/\/advertising.nzme.co.nz\/\" data-ad-env=\"both\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Follow the action as Kai Kara-France looks to become the UFC flyweight champion at UFC 317 in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><b>Preview of Kai Kara-France v Alexandre Pantoja<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A lot can change <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/ufc\/ufc-317-kai-kara-france-reflects-on-first-alexandre-pantoja-bout-and-why-things-are-different-now\/PU3XCGKMFNBQBPMRV7MLWSD37I\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/ufc\/ufc-317-kai-kara-france-reflects-on-first-alexandre-pantoja-bout-and-why-things-are-different-now\/PU3XCGKMFNBQBPMRV7MLWSD37I\/\">in nine years.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In 2016, then-23-year-old UFC flyweight hopeful Kai Kara-France was eliminated from the promotion\u2019s scouting programme The Ultimate Fighter by Brazilian Alexandre Pantoja.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<a class=\"ad__link\" data-test-ui=\"ad__link\" href=\"https:\/\/advertising.nzme.co.nz\/\" data-ad-env=\"both\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">An exhibition bout, the pair fought over two competitive five-minute rounds, with Pantoja getting the nod from the judges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">On Sunday, the pair will meet in the octagon again \u2013 with the biggest prize in the sport on the line as Kara-France sets out to relieve Pantoja of the UFC flyweight championship at UFC 317 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The bout is the co-main event of the pay-per-view card, which headlines the UFC\u2019s annual International Fight Week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">As the company takes the opportunity to celebrate mixed martial arts this week, including holding its Hall of Fame ceremony, the card at the end of it is usually stacked with big fights that fans want to see happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">That is the case with Kara-France and Pantoja.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Their 2016 meeting was an exhibition bout and does not appear on their professional record, hence it not being referred to as Pantoja v Kara-France II in UFC promotional material.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Reflecting on that bout, Kara-France said there was little he could take away from it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI had to cut weight every week for that fight. I\u2019m not taking away anything from Pantoja, but I felt drained already before that fight even started so I didn\u2019t showcase my skill.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<a class=\"ad__link\" data-test-ui=\"ad__link\" href=\"https:\/\/advertising.nzme.co.nz\/\" data-ad-env=\"both\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI was performing at probably 50%, just making flyweight every week. And, bro, I was so young.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cNow I\u2019m 32. There\u2019s a lot that\u2019s changed and I\u2019ve just got more to fight for. I\u2019ve got more purpose; just different stages of my life where [my] priorities are a lot different. I\u2019ve got a family to feed and a family to provide for. I\u2019ve got a legacy to cement and follow suit of my teammates Izzy [Adesanya] and Alex [Volkanovski] who both won titles. I\u2019ve got a belt to win myself and that\u2019s the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The fact that Kara-France has more to fight for now than he did back then has not been lost on Pantoja either.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The reigning UFC champion, who is on a seven-fight winning streak going back to February 2021 noted as much when addressing this weekend\u2019s bout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cKai Kara-France is a real good guy, he\u2019s super humble, and I said to him he looks more dangerous now that he has a family,\u201d Pantoja said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWhen I fought him the first time, he didn\u2019t have a family yet, he didn\u2019t have kids. Now, he has a family and that makes him more dangerous. I know that because I have my family to fight [for], I have my family to feed.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<a class=\"ad__link\" data-test-ui=\"ad__link\" href=\"https:\/\/advertising.nzme.co.nz\/\" data-ad-env=\"both\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI know when the octagon is locked, Kai Kara-France doesn\u2019t fight just for himself anymore. He fights for his family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/author\/christopher-reive\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Christopher Reive<\/b><\/a><b> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Explore more<a class=\"article__print-button\" aria-label=\"print\"><\/a><a href=\"#\" class=\"flex cursor-pointer items-center gap-1.5 text-black\" data-test-ui=\"social-link--bookmark-below\" aria-label=\"bookmark\" id=\"social-link--bookmark-below\">Save<\/a><\/p>\n<ul class=\"m-0\">Share this article<\/p>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none \">Copy Link<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none \">Email<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none \">Facebook<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Twitter\/X<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">LinkedIn<\/li>\n<li class=\"m-0 list-none\">Reddit<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME. Follow the action as Kai Kara-France looks to become the UFC flyweight champion at UFC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[88008,10281,25051,15978,2000,299,88009,17326,36,21003,256,88006,137,9461,17340,88007,5706,8642,29293],"class_list":{"0":"post-222974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-88008","9":"tag-action","10":"tag-become","11":"tag-champion","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-europe","14":"tag-flyweight","15":"tag-follow","16":"tag-france","17":"tag-from","18":"tag-in","19":"tag-karafrance","20":"tag-las","21":"tag-live","22":"tag-looks","23":"tag-pantoja","24":"tag-ufc","25":"tag-updates","26":"tag-vegas"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114764552905691335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}