Kai Kamaka III thinks Andre Fili is going to spend Saturday night with his back on the fence. Ahead of their featherweight bout at UFC Vegas 122 on Oct. 10, the Hawaiian told BJPenn.com’s Cole Shelton that his forward pressure and pace will be too much for the veteran. He also believes the smaller cage at the UFC Apex tilts things his way.
“I think my pressure and my skill, I can touch his chin or beat him up to the body. In the small cage, it favors my style more than his. I have to go out there and show it, but I do think the small cage doesn’t favor him,” Kamaka said.
There’s an edge to this one, and it comes from his last fight. Kamaka lost to Luke Riley at UFC 329 when referee Kerry Hatley waved it off in a stoppage that looked early, and it still bothers him. He told BJPenn.com he has talked to the commission about keeping Hatley away from any more of his fights.
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“I haven’t met a good person who said it was a great stoppage. It was weird. I walked out of there; no one had to help me out. I’m not going to judge myself on that short instance. I’m going to judge myself as a martial artist,” he said.
Here’s the odd part. Coming off a loss, Kamaka arguably drew a bigger opponent than the one who beat him. He sees it that way too.
“Riley is a good prospect, but Fili is a great name, and in the MMA space, he’s a lot more well-known than Luke Riley,” Kamaka said, adding that there’s plenty of tape on both men and that Fili will be making his own adjustments.
Second run, no shortcuts
This is Kamaka’s second stint on the UFC roster, and at Wednesday’s media day, covered by Cageside Press, he sounded like a guy who knows how fast a contract can disappear. He said he’s grateful every time he thinks about where the sport has taken him, and that he’d have quit long ago if he didn’t love it.
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He had real respect for Fili, a fighter who has basically grown up at the top level of the sport.
“Battle-tested experience. Well-rounded, long, rangy, he’s a story in itself, he’s still here,” Kamaka said. “He was a young kid that grew up in this sport so I’m happy to share the cage with him.”
He described the matchup as a fight between two men with similar tools who use them very differently. “We have opposite styles of fighting, similar attributes, similar ways of approaching the game,” he said. “But our tactics are way different.”
Looking past Saturday, Kamaka told BJPenn.com he’d like to fit in one more fight before the year ends if things go his way. He wants a young prospect or a matchup that moves him up. “If I put on a good showing and get past Fili, it doesn’t erase the Riley loss, but it lets people have the same feelings before that fight,” he said.
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UFC Vegas 122 airs live at 8 p.m. ET on Paramount+, with Brendan Allen and Christian Leroy Duncan headlining.
My take: Kamaka’s small-cage logic holds up. He called Fili long and rangy himself, and long, rangy guys need room to work. The Apex Octagon gives them less of it, so every step Kamaka takes forward takes away part of Fili’s game plan. I’m also with him on the Riley fight. You can’t fully judge a fighter by a stoppage that came before the fight had a chance to tell you anything. If he walks Fili down and finishes him in that tight cage on Saturday, people will stop asking about Hatley and start asking about who Kamaka fights in December.
