At UFC Fight Night 142 this December, the UFC will return to Adelaide, Australia and, according to Shawn Bitter of MMA Today, will reportedly bring two natives of the Oceania region, Australia’s own Ashkan Mokhtarian and New Zealand’s Kai Kara France, along with it.
France is an 18-7 professional who was a participant in the “The Ultimate Fighter 24: Tournament of Champions,” where flyweights from around the globe were recruited to compete in a tournament to decide the next challenger for then flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson’s title.
In the very first episode of the series, France earned a KO victory over Terrence Mitchell in the very first round. Later in the season, France would be eliminated by current UFC flyweight Alexandre Pantoja via unanimous decision (two rounds). Following the show, France was disappointed and confused as to why he was not selected for a contract:
“I’m not too sure why they didn’t sign me after the show” Kara-France told Fight News Australia last year. “In a division that doesn’t have knock outs, it’s a weird thing that they didn’t sign me you know, I think it was more of just bad timing, there wasn’t any spots opening up and they would rather put me in the Asian market so I guess they were just trying to wait it out” he continued.
Now, France is prepared to compete in front of the Adelaide audience under the bright lights when he battles Ashkan Mokhtarian.
Ashkan Mokhtarian will be competing in his home turf of Australia in his third UFC fight in search of his first victory in the promotion. Entering the UFC with a 13-1 record, Mokhtarian fell to 13-3 after losing to John Moraga and Ryan Benoit. Speaking to MMA Junkie last year, Mokhtarian described the hardships that preceded his UFC run, which tells of a man who will not drop to 0-3 and put his UFC career in jeopardy without a fight:
“I’ve gone through hard times in my life,” Mokhtarian said. “(I) lived on the street, I’ve been in jail. I’ve been there, done that. So the ride to the top, the top run, that’s nothing. It’s just starting now. Hard times have always been good for me. I take that upon my shoulders and the stress and everything like that. I’m pretty good with it.
“I do have a lot of guys (at Australian Top Team) looking up to me. The reason why I got into this point is to prove to everyone that it can be done. As you know, I started this sport at 25 years old. So me being 31 years old, I’ve turned my life around.”
Mokhtarian will seek to continue to inspire his teammates and others in attendance as the home favorite when he looks to enter the UFC win column for the first time.
What is your prediction for this flyweight contest?
