A key flyweight fight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship will serve as a
main attraction in April.
First reported by MMA
Mania on Thursday evening, Matheus
Nicolau (19-3-1) will run it back with Manel Kape
(19-6) atop
UFC on ESPN 55 on April 27. The flyweights will handle
unfinished business at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, in a bout
previously booked in January. News of this pairing has since been
confirmed by
multiple outlets.
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> The first fight between Nicolau and Kape came on the main card
of UFC Fight Night 187 in 2021. The Brazilian emerged victorious by
extremely close split decision, one in which
every scoring media member saw Kape winning. Part two was set
to take place on UFC Fight Night 234, but Kape exceeded the
flyweight limit by nearly four pounds and Nicolau refused the
fight.
Beating Kape was part of a four-fight win streak in the Octagon
that catapulted Nicolau to the top of the flyweight division. In a
title eliminator, Nicolau succumbed to a vicious knee and follow-up
elbows from Brandon
Royval to lose his first fight since 2018. This marks the
second stint for the Nova Uniao fighter, who went 3-1 and recorded
an ultra-rare Japanese Necktie submission before leaving in 2018 to
test his mettle in Brazil again.
Since losing to Nicolau, “Starboy” has rattled off four victories,
including two first-round knockouts of Ode
Osbourne and Zhalgas
Zhumagulov. Kape has averaged just one fight a year the last
few years, due to a myriad of reasons ranging from Kape missing
weight to opponent illness and injury. As a pro, the Angolan sports
a finish rate of 84%, far higher than his adversary’s 52%.
UFC on ESPN 55 will go down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, with
Nicolau-Kape 2 serving as its main event. The remainder of the
lineup has not yet been set, but other significant matches include
a lightweight tilt between Joel
Alvarez and Mateusz
Rebecki, and a flyweight scrap pitting Karine
Silva against Ariane
Lipski.