Kai Kamaka III isn’t making excuses. A day after Andre Fili flatlined him with a second-round head kick at UFC Vegas 122, the featherweight went to Instagram and gave his opponent full credit.
“Hell of a KO @touchyfili!! Put me the (expletive) out. (Expletive) em. Live by the sword die by the sword. Much respect,” Kamaka wrote.
That’s about as honest as a post-knockout message gets. Kamaka’s post landed the morning after one of the cleaner finishes of the card. Heavy reported that Fili found a clean kick to the head in the second round of their featherweight bout and that Kamaka was out the instant it connected, left motionless on the mat.
The moment that followed deserves its own mention. With Kamaka clearly unconscious and the referee not yet in to wave it off, Fili held back from throwing a follow-up shot. Heavy pointed out that plenty of fighters would have kept swinging in that window, and nobody would have penalized him for it. Fili saw what everyone else saw and stopped himself.
Where this leaves Kamaka
The numbers are rough. This was Kamaka’s second consecutive knockout loss, and it drops him to 1-2 since he rejoined the UFC earlier this year. Across both of his stints with the promotion, he now sits at 2-4-1.
Heavy flagged the obvious risk. A record like that tends to put a fighter on the bubble, especially with the steady pipeline of new signees coming in off Dana White’s Contender Series. The outlet also noted that most UFC deals run four fights, which by its reasoning would leave Kamaka at least one more bout on his current contract.
If he does get that fight, Heavy expects the matchmakers to slide him down the ladder. Its read was a newcomer fresh off DWCS or someone near the bottom of the featherweight division. Fili, whom Heavy described as sitting closer to the top-15 conversation, was a step up that didn’t go Kamaka’s way.
A second straight knockout also raises a fair question about how much more of that a fighter should absorb in a short stretch. Whatever the UFC decides, Kamaka will need time before he’s back in there.
My take: Kamaka’s post is the right energy from a guy who just got turned off in front of a live audience, and “live by the sword” is an accurate description of how he fights. That style is exactly why he’s worth one more booking. But the best decision of the night belonged to Fili, who pulled his hand back while the referee was still a beat late getting in. Referees are supposed to own that moment. Fili did their job for them.
