Manel Kape sees himself fully controlling the tempo against UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van.
Kape (23-7 MMA, 8-3 UFC) challenges Van (18-2 MMA, 11-1 UFC) in the UFC 336 important occasion on Jan. 30 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto (Paramount+). Van is contemporary off a profitable title protection against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 331 last month, when he erased any doubt from a “fluke” win in their first struggle at UFC 323.
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“Honestly, everything that I saw is what I expected,” Kape instructed MMA Junkie. “I think Pantoja just fought too emotional, you know? He got too emotional in the fight, made a lot of mistakes, but Joshua Van is a show. What he’s been showing in other fights – boxing, resilience, and he was durable. But still a lot of mistakes there, still a lot of holes, and that’s what I expect to explore.”
Kape is driving loads of momentum with four-straight stoppage wins. He sees many holes in Van’s recreation that he’s prepared to capitalize on.
“The game plan is very easy,” Kape said. “I know a lot of mistakes he had for the lack of experience, for not being too long in this sport, and I just think that so many guys didn’t exploit that. I think they just spent time boxing with him. Even if I want to spend time boxing with him, I can spend boxing with him because I come from this. I have this knowledge. I have this instinct of boxing, but there are a lot of things people need that they didn’t exploit that I will definitely exploit to make this fight as easy as I can.
“I can see issues that can make me going for the end early than I expect. So, I’m positively going to shock him, and then I can inform it’s going to be irritating because he likes to have these brawl fights. We’re not going to get to that place because I’m going to dictate the tempo. I’m going to dictate when we should go brawl, when we should go gradual, and then when I can change the tempo of the struggle. So, I have all this set up, and positively this is what’s going to occur. … This is the finish of the street.”
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Van has leveled up his game in and out of the octagon. He managed to get under Pantoja’s skin before their rematch, but Kape has the gift of gab himself.
“Of course, having the belt gives you a totally different confidence, but do not come with that confidence with me because it’s going to be very delusional confidence,” Kape said. “Because you’re going to struggle a higher man, a higher fighter than you with more expertise. Anything you do, I do higher. Honestly, I see him like my fan. He tries to be a model of Manel. He’s my fan, but I’ll show ranges.”
This article initially appeared on MMA Junkie: Manel Kape warns Joshua Van of having ‘delusional confidence’ before UFC 336
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