A place in the top five of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s flyweight
division almost certainly hinges on this bout’s outcome.
Per
MMA Junkie on Wednesday evening, Kai Kara
France (24-10, 1 NC) will battle it out with Alex Perez
(24-7) in a pivotal 125-pound tilt on Feb. 11. The two flyweights
will compete in Perth, Australia, at
UFC 284, and it is unclear if this contest will serve on the
main card or if it will bolster the prelims. The bout has since
been confirmed
on Thursday by Perez’ management team of the Iridium Sports
Agency.
Kara France last competed in July, where he succumbed to strikes
from Brandon
Moreno in their interim title fight. Before then, the Aussie
had rattled off three wins over Rogerio
Bontorin, Cody
Garbrandt and Askar
Askarov – knocking out the first two in the opening round.
Since joining the roster in 2018, the only men to beat Kara France
are named Brandon: Moreno, and Brandon
Royval. The five post-fight bonuses picked up by “Don’t Blink”
sit him in third place with the most in divisional history.
Ex-title challenger Perez has not had his hand raised in over two
years, with a pair of first-round submission defeats to Deiveson
Figueiredo and Alexandre
Pantoja leading up to this encounter. Prior to the finishes,
Perez had also earned three straight wins, topping Mark De La
Rosa on the scorecards in 2019 before putting Jordan
Espinosa to sleep and stopping Jussier
Formiga with a brutal leg kick in 2020. Of all the fighters to
ever compete in the flyweight division – with at least five
appearances under their belt – Perez
averages the shortest fight time of any, with a mean cage time
of 4:45 after nine trips to the Octagon.
UFC 284 will post up inside the RAC Arena in Perth, Western
Australia, Australia, on Feb. 11. The event will be capped off by a
pair of championship fights, with the main attraction a veritable
superfight between lightweight king Islam
Makhachev and 145-pound titleholder Alexander
Volkanovski with the former’s gold on the line. The interim
featherweight strap will also be up for grabs that night, when
Josh
Emmett and Yair
Rodriguez vie for a formal opportunity to face Volkanovski when
he returns to the division. Other key pairings on the billing
include a middleweight thriller between Robert
Whittaker and Paulo
Costa and a light heavyweight battle as Jimmy Crute
takes on Alonzo
Menifield.