Kai Kara-France impresses in upset over Askar Askarov at UFC Columbus

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us tonight, March 26, 2022, for UFC Fight Night 205.

This event is going down live from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Headlining the card is a heavyweight contest between a pair of ranked contenders in Curtis Blaydes (No. 4) and Chris Daukaus (No. 9).

Co-headlining the event is a women’s flyweight bout between another pair of ranked contenders, Joanne Calderwood (No. 7) and Alexa Grasso (No. 9).

Our first feature fight of the night came in the flyweight division between top contenders Askar Askarov (No. 2) and Kai Kara-France (No. 6) in a supposed title eliminator bout.

Of course Brandon Moreno will be facing champion Deiveson Figueiredo for the fourth time coming up, but whoever wins this fight will be right there to challenge for the belt next.

Click here for UFC Columbus results

Official Result: Kai Kara-France def. Askar Askarov via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Kara-France starts off the fight with a couple nice leg kicks, before one of them is caught by Askarov. Kara-France shows off some BJ Penn-like takedown defense and flexibility, but is eventually taken down.

Askarov is right into side control, and soon takes the Aussie’s back.

Kara-France lets go of his hands at the beginning of the second, knowing he badly lost the first, and stuns Askarov with a combination, wobbling him backward. He then pursues Askarov, only to be taken down again.

Askarov nearly takes his back again, but Kara-France is quickly back up to his feet and gets back to work with his striking. The entire round is spent with Kara-France easily stuffing Askarov’s takedowns whilst landing a number of hard punches.

He stuck with more of a boxing approach in the second, and it worked out beautifully for him.

It’s 1-1 going into the third! After that dominant first round from Askarov, things have gotten very interesting.

And, the third is the closest round of them all. Askarov is able to have some control time, and Kara-France maintained good defensive wrestling and offensive striking.

If you enjoyed this piece, feel free to share it on social media!

Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

See Full Bio