Manel Kape is snapping again at battle followers.
Starboy’ secured one other large win contained in the Octagon on March 1, scoring a third-round TKO in opposition to Asu Almabayev at a Battle Evening occasion in Las Vegas. Nevertheless, the victory got here with a heap of controversy after Kape appeared to poke his opponent within the eye a number of occasions — as soon as within the second spherical after which once more within the third.
Regardless of the foul being fairly apparent, referee Mike Beltran by no means as soon as stepped in to pause the motion.
Days later, Almabayev took to social media and revealed the horrific situation of his eye because of the egregious foul. However even with the proof mounting, Kape insists that Almabayev’s eye was compromised from the very first punch and that his win had nothing to do with unlawful strikes.
“Against Asu, his eye became like that, it was the first punch,” Kape instructed MMA Preventing. “It was the first punch that hit him. If you guys watch the fight very carefully and watch the first round, when I got the punch, immediately his eye was already destroyed.”
Whereas a punch might have compromised Almabayev’s eye within the early going, it doesn’t change the truth that ‘Starboy’ delivered two very blatant eye pokes through the fight-ending sequence.
Holy shit!!! After additional evaluate Manel Kape must be disqualified. He actually pulled a Chris Weidman & double eye poked him for a end.
Don’t imagine me?? Right here’s the gradual mo the place you’ll be able to clearly see he eye pokes him with each fingers. These weren’t even the first pokes pic.twitter.com/olvqDXSqQJ
— MMA Joey (@MMAJOEYC) March 2, 2025
Manel Kape insists Followers simply wish to hate on ‘special fighters’ like himself
However regardless of there being simple proof of a number of fouls being dedicated, Kape shrugged all of it off as simply one other case of followers attempting to discredit his efficiency.
“It was not an eye poke that made the fight, that finished the fight,” Manel Kape stated. “I was beating him. People go and find excuses because it was me. People want to find an excuse. There’s a type of fighters that get a lot of hate. This is a special fighters, the champions, they always talk about them and they want to criticize them. I know I’m one of the people that get a lot of hate but when you’re winning, when you become a champion, they want to be on your side.”
With the win over Almabayev, Kape has now gained six of his final seven and can probably battle for the flyweight championship subsequent.
At present, reigning titleholder Alexandre Pantoja is linked to a battle with No. 4 ranked contender Kai Kara-France at UFC 316 on Saturday, June 7 although no official bulletins have been made. Chances are high, Kape will face the winner of that battle in late 2025 or early 2026.
