It was a long time coming, but now Kiwi standout Kai Kara-France has finally signed with the UFC.
The announcement was made via social media and included a video message from UFC president Dana White congratulating the 25 year-old TUF veteran on joining the promotion’s roster.
It’s been a long road for “Dont Blink”, who has been regarded as one of the best unsigned talents in the region for years.
Training out of City Kickboxing in Auckland alongside the likes of like Dan Hooker and Israel Adesanya, Kara-France is currently riding an impressive five-fight win streak with his most recent victory a first-round submission in his hometown which took his professional record to 17-7 with 13 of those wins coming by stoppage.
The hard hitting Kiwi has already had a small taste of the UFC but despite scoring the only straight knockout on The Ultimate Fighter 24: Tournament Of Champions season back in 2016 (pictured above), Kara-France was not immediately offered another fight with the promotion.
Cut to 2017, however, the flyweight was offered a short-notice fight in the promotion against Tim Elliot in Canada. Speaking with Fight News Australia’s James Averis, Kara-France explained why he declined to take the offer at the time.
It was November last year, we got asked ‘what do I weigh right now?’ I said I was a bit heavier than flyweight so I couldn’t guarantee I would make that weight in a week. The guy that they did offer it too, he ended up missing weight and the whole fight got called off because he missed weight. So, that could of been me you know, so luckily we didn’t take that fight just because we want to make sure that when we do make our shot, we want to make weight and put on a show.
When Kara-France will make his official UFC debut was not mentioned in the post. The promotion is set to return to this part of the world later this year with a Fight Night card in Adelaide on December 2.
