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Despite the beef between them, Manel Kape couldn’t help but feel bad for Israel Adesanya after the former two-time titleholder suffered his third straight loss inside the Octagon.
After coming up short against Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis, ‘The Last Stylebender’ was hoping for a recent against rising contender Nassourdine Imavov at UFC Saudi Arabia. Following a solid opening round, Adesanya was struck by an overhand right less than a minute into the second stanza which ultimately resulted in him TKO’d for just the second time inside the Octagon.
Reacting to Adesanya’s loss, Kape admitted during a recent interview with former flyweight great Demetrious Johnson that he felt sorry for the middleweight icon.
“I’m sad about Izzy,” Kape said. “His last fight. I’m really sad. We had the beef but he’s a legend, you know. He was beating this guy, you know. He was winning the fight. I was sad, you know. I was sad because you see a legend like him falling down that way is pretty sad, you know. I never wish anything for any man. Stepping in the cage and have the results he had, it’s pretty sad.”
Manel Kape’s feud with Adesanya goes back to a 2023 encounter with Kai Kara-France
Kape’s words are especially surprising since there’s been some animosity between him and Adesanya dating back to an incident in September 2023 when the ‘Stylebender’ stepped in to argue with Kape on behalf of his City Kickboxing teammate Kai Kara-France.
The argument came to be when Kara-France pulled out of a fight with Kape at UFC 293. Defending his friend, Adesanya called Kape a “midget” and threatened to bury him.
Shortly after Kape claimed that Adesanya had attempted to apologize for the incident, but ‘Starboy’ wasn’t having it.
“After all this talk [at the press conference], he came to me backstage ‘Hey, no disrespect, we are Africa, we’re brothers,’” Kape told MMA Fighting after the incident. “I said, ‘We are not brothers. Look, my problem is with Kai Kara, not with you. Why did you stand up? He can handle his business.’”
They may never be friends, but at least there seems to be some mutual respect between the two UFC stars.
Kape will be back in action this Saturday for a Fight Night card inside The APEX. ‘Starboy’ will headline the evening’s festivities with a high-stakes flyweight clash against 21-win veteran Asu Almabayev.
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