Following back-to-back cancelled bouts, Manel Kape expected to return against David Dvorak at UFC FN 216
It appears we finally have the return of former Rizin bantamweight champion Manel Kape (17-6) on tap, following a pair of cancelled bouts opposing Su Mudaerji and Rogerio Bontorin in April and June of this year, as he’s booked to return against former GCF flyweight champion David Dvorak (20-4).
This epic flyweight clash is to go down at UFC Fight Night 216 on December 17, 2022, live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Kape’s UFC career has been a bit up and down thus far into it; he was expected to make his promotional debut in August of 2020 against Rogerio Bontorin, and then against Alexandre Pantoja in December of 2020.
Instead, he’d be forced to wait until February of that next year to debut against Pantoja, losing the bout via unanimous decision. Following a gun-shy first two rounds, Kape would put together enough offense to win the third and final five minutes, but it wasn’t enough as he was already down on the scorecards.
Then we had his sophomore effort, where he lost to the returning Matheus Nicolau via split decision.
This was a contest many believed he won, but again, he was timid throughout the bout, and it cost him the win considering.
That would all change in his next outing however, as he KO’d Ode Osbourne with a flying knee at 4:44 of round one, before TKO’ing Zhalgas Zhumagulov at 4:02 of the opening round in his next bout.
That was on December 4, of 2021, and due to his two recent fight bookings that never came to fruition, we’ve been forced to wait an entire year to see him compete again.
It’s too bad we never saw him face Bontorin; Kape was slated to fight him twice, the most recent time of which Bontorin withdrew from the bout the day prior with weight cutting issues.
Bontorin was then cut from the promotion, so it doesn’t appear we’ll see that fight any time soon, if ever.
David Dvorak is a solid talent that went on an initial three-fight win streak to begin his UFC tenure, before losing his most recent bout to one of Kape’s former foes, Matheus Nicolau, who defeated him via unanimous decision earlier this year in March.
Each man has had four UFC fights thus far, Kape going 2-2, and Dvorak going 3-1.
Man, aren’t we lucky the UFC decided not to do away with the flyweight division?
This is an epic clash between two very talented strikers going down at UFC Fight Night 216. Who takes the victory?
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