Manel Kape regarded sensational towards Asu Almabayev in his first UFC primary occasion, however two moments within the bout drew controversy.
Kape stopped Almabayev and put an end to his opponent’s 17-fight win streak with a third-round TKO within the UFC Vegas 103 headliner Saturday at UFC APEX. It was all Kape from the opening seconds of the combat as he was selecting Almabayev aside with quick and highly effective pictures, utilizing his feints all through to throw Almabayev off his rhythm.
Nonetheless, within the second spherical, and once more within the third, replays on the printed confirmed Kape scrape the attention of Almabayev. Referee Mike Beltran—or the replay official—didn’t pause the motion, permitting Kape to proceed combating. In the course of the night’s post-fight press conference, Kape was requested concerning the eye pokes.
“That’s not my job,” Kape mentioned. “I didn’t see nothing. I feel the [referee] must be extra attentive. I’ve suffered so [much] stuff within the octagon, so I don’t know. It was clear, for what I’ve seen, it was good, [he] may see me good. If he was not in a position to combat, if I feel he was actually stopping, so he was complaining about one thing, I give him three seconds, and I run again. I simply didn’t do something, so I combat.”
After dropping a controversial choice to ex-UFC fighter Muhammad Mokaev at UFC 304, Kape went on to dominate and end Bruno Silva this previous December at UFC Tampa, earlier than placing Almabaev away. “Starboy” believes the victory ought to earn him a title shot.
Within the ending sequence, Kape had Almabayev damage, inflicting him to actually dash across the octagon making an attempt to keep away from additional harm. As soon as the previous RIZIN champ noticed that, he knew it was curtains for Almabayev.
“Yeah, I smelled the blood,” Kape mentioned. “I simply really feel like I used to be an excessive amount of for him. Like I mentioned earlier than, [he] won’t be the identical fighter after the second spherical, and I at all times, each spherical, I develop, develop, develop.
“That’s the sequence I used to be searching for and I knew he was giving his again an excessive amount of, and I used to be simply calm and [collected] ready for the time to cease him.”
