UFC Vegas 84: Manel Kape misses weight by big margin, highly anticipated flyweight clash now hangs in balance
Manel Kape could not make the weight cut ahead of UFC Vegas 84. The former Rizin star nearly encroached on the 130-pound mark and missed weight by a noticeable amount as he hit 129.5 pounds.
In a clip shared via Amy Kaplan's X account @PhotoAmy33, the MMA world got to take in Kape's immediate reactions to missing the flyweight mark of 125 pounds.
'Starboy' was slated to fight Matheus Nicolau at tomorrow's UFC Fight Night: Ankalev vs Walker II card. But now several question marks linger with this fight and what may happen to these two combatants going ahead.
Check out the footage of Kape's weight miss below
Manel Kape and his mixed martial arts efforts so far
Kape initially cut his teeth on the Portuguese regional circuit and rose to broader global prominence fighting in Japan for Rizin Fighting Federation. After capturing 135 pounds title in RFF, entering the famed UFC octagon and a journey down to 125 pounds became of paramount focus to Kape in early 2021.
The Angola native had a somewhat inauspicious beginning to his UFC career by losing to the current flyweight title holder Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision, then a split decision loss to the aforementioned Nicolau.
The former Rizin bantamweight champion would then rebound from the consecutive setbacks to score back-to-back wins. He notched consecutive first-round striking finishes of Ode Osbourne and Zhalgas Zhumagulov.
The 30-year-old then put together two unanimous decision wins thereafter to increase his overall winning streak to four straight.
'Starboy' defeated David Dvorak at UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs Strickland in December 2022 then picked up the win over Felipe dos Santos at UFC 293 last September.
The only part of this whole scenario, though, is the relative lack of activity, with him only having a single fight in 2022 and then a lone MMA outing in 2023. This was not for lack of trying though and there were multiple bout cancellations in the last two years.
In 2022, Sumudaerji fell through after Manel Kape tested positive for what was reported as a turinabol metabolite in April of that year and Rogério Bontorin was canceled for that June's UFC 275: Teixeira vs. Procházka card after a Bontorin botched weight cut.
However, this is not the first time he has missed weight. Back in 2021 at UFC 265, he was three pounds above the weight limit.
For 2023, Alex Perez was scrapped from last March's UFC Fight Night after Perez had medical issues on fight night. Also last year, Deiveson Figueiredo was declared not medically cleared for last July's UFC 290 card. Plus, Kai Kara-France was supposed to fight Kape on September's UFC 293: Adesanya vs. Strickland until a Kara-France concussion scuttled those plans for the time being.
Manel Kape is also purportedly undefeated on the streets which not every UFC flyweight can say.