New Zealand fighters set for Sydney stage

New Zealand fighters set for Sydney stage

Blood Diamond will return to the Octagon in September in Sydney.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

A New Zealand fighter takeover is set for Sydney in September.

UFC 293 at the Sydney Superdome will showcase several Kiwis on the card.

City Kick Boxing in Auckland has already announced three of its fighters will appear in Sydney with at least three more expected to be confirmed soon.

Former flyweight title challenger Kai Kara-France will take on number nine ranked Manel Kape of Angola.

Kara-France has lost his last two including a title fight with former champion Brandon Moreno and a highly debated split decision loss to Amir Albazi last month.

Kape (18-6) has won three in a row but has fought just once since the start of 2022.

Kara-France’s City Kickboxing teammate Michael ‘Blood’ Diamond Mathetha faces American Charlie Radtke at welterweight.

Diamond (3-2) has yet to register a win in the UFC while Radtke will be making his promotional debut.

The other confirmed New Zealander is Carlos Ulberg who will go up against South Korea’s Da Woon Jung.

Ulberg comes into the fight with an 8-1 record and is riding a four-fight win streak since losing his UFC debut.

Jung has a respectable 15-4 record but is coming off of two straight losses.

Carlos “the Black Jag” Ulberg brings a heap of momentum into UFC 293.
Photo: Photosport

The Sydney card is likely to be headlined by Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight title.

As evidenced by their post-fight face off at UFC 290 there is a heap of bad blood between these two.

It stems from Du Plessis claiming he would be the first real African champion in the UFC, alleging the likes of Adesanya, Kamaru Usman and Francis Ngannou are not truly African fighters as they left the continent.

Adesanya in turn has called Du Plessis a coloniser and during their face off screamed a racial slur a dozen times at Du Plessis.

The South African is seen as a genuine threat to Adesanya having knocked out the Last Stylebender’s long-time rival Robert Whittaker in round two earlier this month.

Both are world class kickboxers, so the fight should be an exciting stand-up affair.

However, Dricus also has a strong wrestling pedigree and will put Adesanya’s quality takedown defence to the test.

Du Plessis is unbeaten in the UFC at 6-0 with an overall record of 20-2, his last loss coming in 2018.

Adesanya meanwhile is coming off a stunning win over his other long time career rival, Alex Pereira.

“I’ve never been more motivated to kill a man, and when I say not to end his life but to really put on a beating,” Adesanya said on the Freestylebender podcast.

“Not emotional anger. Just really want to take my time and put a beating on someone and I’m gonna work my way to get that done.”

Adesanya said he was rooting for the South African at UFC 290.

Israel Adesanya is set to defend his middleweight crown in Sydney.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

“I was urging him on. Nothing surprised me. He is a crafty, crafty little minx that one. Nothing surprised me.”

The middleweight king said he felt himself “turning” as he entered the octagon to square off with his next opponent.

‘When it happened I just lost my s***. No matter what I do, after my last fight I grabbed the mic they say it was the best post fight speech in history, after this fight now they say it’s cringe, it’s a bad look, but either way I make you feel something, if you love me or hate me you will feel something.”

He said he wants to give Du Plessis a lesson.

“There’s levels to this, I want to make him feel me.”

Other Kiwi fighters to potentially fight in Sydney are Tyson Pedro, Shane Young and Brad Riddell though official announcements have yet to be made.

Adesanya said City Kick Boxing has now entered the trenches.

“I’m looking forward to the work, this is the village and in the streets of Mount Eden,”

UFC 293 Sydney is on Sunday September 10.