UFC: Manel Kape declares ‘I’ll be world champion again’ after first-round TKO of Zhalgas Zhumagulov
- Former Rizin bantamweight champ continues his resurgence with another first-round finish at UFC Vegas 44
- ‘I don’t need to call anybody [out] – everybody needs to call me,’ insists ‘Starboy’ Kape
The “Starboy” has well and truly arrived in the UFC.
Portugal’s Manel Kape (17-6) made “easy work” – in his own words, atop the Octagon – of Zhalgas Zhumagulov (14-6), securing a first-round TKO in their flyweight bout on Saturday night’s UFC Vegas 44 undercard.
The 28-year-old former Rizin champion’s time in the UFC got off to a stuttering start, with two straight decision losses to Brazilians Alexandre Pantoja (24-5) and Matheus Nicolau (17-2-1), the latter a controversial split that many had Kape winning.
The Luanda, Angola-born Kape, who fights out of AKA Thailand in Phuket, then missed weight for his bout with Ode Osbourne in August, but reset the narrative with a flying-knee KO in the first round at UFC 265.
This time he will be eligible for a performance bonus after making weight, and could very well end up with an extra US$50,000 in his pocket.
“I won the fight with Nicolau, everybody saw – I don’t know why they gave me the loss,” Kape told Daniel Cormier in his post-fight interview in the Octagon. “But I don’t need to call anybody [out] – everybody needs to call me.