Manel Kape is snapping again at struggle followers.
Starboy’ secured one other huge win contained in the Octagon on March 1, scoring a third-round TKO towards Asu Almabayev at a Combat Night time occasion in Las Vegas. Nonetheless, the victory got here with a heap of controversy after Kape appeared to poke his opponent within the eye a number of occasions — as soon as within the second spherical after which once more within the third.
Regardless of the foul being fairly apparent, referee Mike Beltran by no means as soon as stepped in to pause the motion.
Days later, Almabayev took to social media and revealed the horrific situation of his eye because of the egregious foul. However even with the proof mounting, Kape insists that Almabayev’s eye was compromised from the very first punch and that his win had nothing to do with unlawful strikes.
“Towards Asu, his eye grew to become like that, it was the primary punch,” Kape informed MMA Combating. “It was the primary punch that hit him. Should you guys watch the struggle very rigorously and watch the primary spherical, once I obtained the punch, instantly his eye was already destroyed.”
Whereas a punch could have compromised Almabayev’s eye within the early going, it doesn’t change the truth that ‘Starboy’ delivered two very blatant eye pokes through the fight-ending sequence.
Manel Kape insists Followers simply wish to hate on ‘particular fighters’ like himself
However regardless of there being plain proof of a number of fouls being dedicated, Kape shrugged all of it off as simply one other case of followers making an attempt to discredit his efficiency.
“It was not a watch poke that made the struggle, that completed the struggle,” Manel Kape mentioned. “I used to be beating him. Folks go and discover excuses as a result of it was me. Folks wish to discover an excuse. There’s a sort of fighters that get a whole lot of hate. It is a particular fighters, the champions, they at all times discuss them and so they wish to criticize them. I do know I’m one of many those that get a whole lot of hate however once you’re profitable, once you turn out to be a champion, they wish to be in your facet.”
With the win over Almabayev, Kape has now gained six of his final seven and can doubtless struggle for the flyweight championship subsequent.
At present, reigning titleholder Alexandre Pantoja is linked to a struggle with No. 4 ranked contender Kai Kara-France at UFC 316 on Saturday, June 7 although no official bulletins have been made. Likelihood is, Kape will face the winner of that struggle in late 2025 or early 2026.
