Manel Kape hands Felipe dos Santos his first career defeat in epic battle at UFC 293
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, September 9, 2023, for UFC 293, going down live from the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
Headlining the event is a title clash between UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya (24-2) and no. 5 ranked Sean Strickland (27-5).
Co-headlining the event is a heavyweight affair between no. 6 ranked Tai Tuivasa (14-5) and no. 7 ranked former Bellator & M-1 Global heavyweight champion Alexander Volkov (36-10).
Our feature fight of the evening came in the flyweight division between no. 10 ranked former Rizin bantamweight champion Manel Kape (19-6) and undefeated promotional newcomer Felipe dos Santos (7-1).
Continue reading to see how our flyweight feature bout went down:
Official Result: Manel Kape def. Felipe dos Santos via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
These two go at it through the opening five minutes, each of them landing a number of good punches in the middle of combinations. Kape drops dos Santos early, but dos Santos returns to his feet and settles in as the round goes on.
The chaos continues throughout round two, each man letting go of their punches with Kape getting the better of the exchanges. He’s so slick, precise, and accurate in the pocket, and he does it with such speed it’s really a thing of beauty to witness.
Kape continues to bust dos Santos up in the third and final round, though he gets wobbled himself by a nice counter shot thrown by dos Santos. This 23-year-old Brazilian put up a hell of a fight tonight; he fights a lot like a younger Thomas Almeida, or even his teammate Charles Oliveira. He certainly has a bright future in the sport.
As for Manel Kape, he just improved his win streak to four-straight tonight with this victory at UFC 293.
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