New UFC flyweight champ Joshua Van turned some heads on social media when he teased his first title defense, posting “Signed” with a contract emoji and some smiley faces wearing sunglasses. One man that’s not smiling about any of this, though, is Manel Kape.
“Starboy” is ranked No. 2 at flyweight and currently on a three fight winning streak, including a first round knockout of Brandon Royval. You’d expect that to put him at the front of the pack for a title shot so long as former champ Alexandre
Pantoja is out with an injury, but that’s not the case according to Kape.
“Fake news, I am not fighting my ‘son’ Joshua Van,” Kape tweeted in response to a post suggesting he’d been booked into a title fight. “My team and I have been pushing for this fight since my last one. However, according to the UFC, they had already promised the title shot to Tatsuro Taira after he defeated Brandon Royval.”
“Even knowing that, we kept pushing to make this fight happen on March 7th,” he continued. “UFC told us there was a strong possibility. I was already cutting weight by Monday I was down to 144 lbs. In the end, the UFC decided not to move forward with the fight because the short time. We keep moving forward. Patient as always.
And believe me patience is something I’ve mastered. Champion soon Insha’Allah.”
March 7th is the date of UFC 326: Holloway vs. Oliveira 2, which has listed its co-main event as TBA vs. TBA for weeks now. Even now it’s unclear whether a Joshua Van title defense will fit there, or if it’s been shifted forward to UFC 327 in Miami, or perhaps all the way to the UFC White House event in June, which is expected to feature a number of championship bouts.
Whatever the case, we have contender Manel Kape claiming that Tatsuro Taira is the man on call for this flyweight title fight. The only thing that may change that? If Alexandre Pantoja miraculously recovers from the horrific arm injury he suffered against Van in December that saw his limb fold backwards on itself in the wrong direction. Pantoja and his team have been adamant that he’d be able to return quickly, but it’s hard to watch the injury replay and believe that.
We’ll keep you up to date on what the UFC decides as soon as we find it.
