After falling short at UFC 317, what’s next for Kai Kara-France?

This past weekend in the co-main event of UFC 317, the flyweight title was on the line. Alexandre Pantoja (30-5) was looking to defend his title for the fourth time as he took on dangerous knockout artist Kai Kara-France (25-12).

KKF earned this title fight coming off his major knockout victory over Steve Erceg last year. Kara-France is one of those rare flyweights who carries a ton of knockout power and he’s dangerous anytime that the fight is on the feet. Because of that, Pantoja had a game plan to take him down right away.

If you were in the Kara-France camp, you would have hoped that he’d be ready to defend takedowns, but he really struggled with that in this fight. In the first round, he was taken down and dominated on the ground for the entirety of the round. He had a little more success in the second round, but still was in a 2-0 hole entering the third at UFC 317.

The fight seemed to end in a flash in the third round. Pantoja shot for a takedown and immediately got the back of Kara-France. KKF fought the hands but Pantoja locked in choke forcing Kara-France to tap.

What’s next after UFC 317?

This is the second time that Kai Kara-France has fought for flyweight gold and both times he was finished. He fought Brandon Moreno for interim gold and was stopped due to a massive body kick and then Pantoja submitted him this past weekend in their title fight.

He’s going to have to string together some big wins to hopefully get a third crack at UFC gold. In terms of what’s next, I think there are a few options for him with familiar names. The fight I would love to see is him and Manel Kape. These two hate each other and there is a ton of bad blood between the two men. Kape was supposed to fight Brandon Royval on Saturday but pulled out with an injury, I wouldn’t at all mind a fight between KKF and Manel Kape.

Potential rematches with Amir Albazi and Brandon Royval could also be on the table for Kara-France. I think he’s going to get someone in the top seven and he’s going to need a big performance to keep his name relevant in the title picture.