Kaiwhare "Don't Blink" Kara-France is into the final week of preparations as he gets set to fight Mexico's Brandon Moreno next weekend at UFC 245 in Las Vegas.
A win next week for the 6th ranked flyweight will see Kara-France be within touching distance of a UFC title shot next year, and he's fit and ready to go, "I'm just excited to kind of get in there now, just kind of done all the work, 8 weeks, 10 weeks of training so now is just fun time."
It will be Kara-France's first UFC fight in the US, and his third for the year after taking on Raulian Paiva in Melbourne in February, and Mark De La Rosa in Shenzen in August. His opponent this time around is Brandon Moreno, who Kara-France knows well from when the two were in the Ultimate Fighter in 2016.
"I'm expecting a tough out of him. He's going to bring the fight to me, but I've been training just as hard. He's number five in the world, I'm number six. He's where I want to be, so I'm going to be doing everything I can in my power to make sure that I get past him and get the win," the 26-year-old says.
He is effectively in the same situation his City Kickboxing teammate Dan "Hangman" Hooker is in the Lightweight division, where a win will almost guarantee him of moving into the top 5, and a chance to push for a world title fight sooner rather than later.
Having won his three previous UFC fights, and 5 fights before being handed his debut by UFC president Dana White, "Don't Blink" could well have some gold shining in his eyes in the new year, "it's definitely going to be an exciting year for me. I'll be on a nine-fight win streak by then. There's not many guys with a win streak like that, so I feel like that will separate me from the pack and it will be hard to deny me for a title shot. So hopefully 2020 we do get a title shot, and I become the flyweight world champ."
City Kickboxing already has one World Title in their clutches, Middleweight world champion Israel Adesanya. Alexander "The Great" Volkanovski is fighting for the world featherweight title next weekend when he co-main events in Las Vegas.
Volkanovski says it is a testament to the work and determination that everyone in the gym puts into the trade. Now they're all chasing championships.
"Izzy started that obviously winning that belt. I'm going to win this belt. Dan will get that belt. The belts are just going to keep coming back to this side of the world.
“We're just going to sit back and say “we told ya so”. That's not bragging, not cockiness it's just we're some of the best fighters over here, and we're showing the world that every day."
The pair and their team leave for Las Vegas this weekend, as they enter fight week for the final time in 2019, where CKB fighters have recorded a 10 win-0 loss year, and Kara-France believes that will improve to 12-0 by the end of UFC 245.