Alexandre Pantoja's teammate claims Kai Kara-France fight was scrapped, suggests UFC favors Manel Kape next: "Already fought against both"

Alexandre Pantoja is seemingly on a collision course with either Manel Kape or Kai Kara-France next with a training partner of the UFC titleholder offering up some interesting insights on this topic. In an interview with Kyle Dimond of Bloody Elbow, Adriano Moraes covered several subjects ahead of his clash with Yuya Wakamatsu for the vacant flyweight title at ONE 172 on March 23.

Pantoja is a frequent training partner of Moraes over at American Top Team with the two clearly having a lot of insights on one another. When asked about who could next throw down with the UFC flyweight champion between Kai Kara-France and Manel Kape, Moraes said:

"Yes, he already fought against both, right. I think he has a win against both of those guys. I think UFC already like showed that he would be defending his belt against Kai Kara-France but this fight was cancelled. Then after this fight was cancelled and Manel Kape did a really good performance, right."

He continued:

"He smashed the undefeated fighter [Asu Almabayev]. So maybe UFC changed their idea of the next contender or maybe not. You know, maybe they're going to sign up a different fight for a different organization. Let's see, man. A lot of opportunity is in the air."

Check out Moraes' thoughts on whether Kara-France or Kape is next for Pantoja [at the 4:50 mark] below:

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Alexandre Pantoja and his history with both Kai Kara-France as well as Manel Kape

Alexandre Pantoja has indeed fought both of these ranked flyweight contenders and bested them both as Moraes mentioned in the quote above. Pantoja clashed with Kara-France when the two surging flyweights were both working their way through the tournament structure of The Ultimate Fighter in its twenty-fourth season.

On July 26, 2016, during the second round of the TUF tournament, Pantoja secured a victory over Kai Kara-France and did so by way of a unanimous decision. While this contest is categorically an exhibition bout with it transpiring in the TUF house, it was still a win for the 34-year-old albeit not one that is technically on Pantoja's professional record.

It would be several years after his tenure inside of the TUF house that Pantoja would end up clashing with the aforementioned Manel Kape. Alexandre Pantoja and Manel Kape did battle at UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Volkov on Feb. 6, 2021. The native of Rio de Janeiro would go on to secure yet another UD as he ended up besting Kape by way of a unanimous decision in their contest.