Did UFC Flyweight star Kai Kara France get into a fight outside the cage recently? That’s strange because you’d think ‘Don’t Blink’ is the least controversial fighter in the UFC, keeping his thrash talk and mean mugging confined for UFC press conferences and fights inside the Octagon. But now his name is in the news for allegedly beating up four men in an elevator.
UpFront MMA released a video with the caption, “BREAKING NEWS: UFC FIGHTER KAI KARA FRANCE DESTROYS 4 WOULD BE ATTACKERS INSIDE THE ELEVATOR OF A LUXURY HOTEL IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA!!”. In the video, a man, allegedly, Kai Kara France, was seen wailing on what looks like three individuals inside an elevator. The men looked no match for the assailant who seemed to have good hands.
Kai Kara France is not really known for beefing with others. He is generally a laid-back fellow unless there is thrash-talking involved, as seen in his exchanges with Manel Kape. The other instance was a small feud with Charlie Alaniz in The Ultimate Fighter season 24. In this case, France was clearly not the instigator and was being goaded into an altercation with Alaniz. In the show, during training, Alaniz threatened to knock Kara France out and seemed pretty serious at that moment. In reply, ‘Don’t Blink’ just said, “I just let it sit. I did not want to cause any drama.”
BREAKING NEWS: UFC FIGHTER KAI KARA FRANCE DESTROYS 4 WOULDBE ATTACKERS INSIDE THE ELEVATOR OF A LUXURY HOTEL IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA!! @ufc @kaikarafrance #streetfights #fightvideos pic.twitter.com/9GWsnMhQrE
— UPFRONT MMA (@upfrontmma) February 16, 2025
So is the person in the video really the flyweight from New Zealand? Upon closer inspection, it doesn’t look like the UFC flyweight and the man in the video was beating up three, not four people in the elevator. And guess what? It is also an old video from 2023 with the incident happening in Russia, not Australia. A user with the handle @thefaded posted the video back then with the caption, “Russian guy takes out 3 people in the elevator messing with him #Fight”
A pretty interesting way of having your name being thrown out there without you making any noise or trying to promote a fight. However, Kai Kara France might have to promote his next fight, as he’s reported to be fighting against Alexandre Pantoja for the flyweight belt at UFC 314. This will be France’s second fight against Pantoja, the first being in TUF 24 where he lost via rear-naked choke submission in the second round of their bout.
Interestingly, ‘Don’t Blink’ trains in the same gym as Israel Adesanya—City Kickboxing gym in Auckland, New Zealand. He is also the next best fighter in Izzy’s gym to now fight for a championship, as Adesanya is in a bit of a slump. However, Kara France is not invincible even if he is an amazing fighter because of his issues related to his brain’s health. He spoke at length about his health issues after suffering back-to-back defeats, and failing neurological tests.
Kai Kara France and his struggle with neurological issues
‘Don’t Blink’ fell victim to a controversial decision loss against Amir Albazi. Back then, he had two back-to-back losses that had moved him away from the title conversation. However, these losses were more concerning because of the concussions he experienced and revealed the same before his UFC 305 clash against former title contender, Steve Erceg.
After he fought Albazi, he had to take a year-long break because of his brain health. In fact, he had to stay away from training for 6 months because of concussions. “Time away has given me clarity, taking six months off contact is probably the best thing I could do, listening to all the specialists, all the guys here to save you from yourself, I guess fighters and athletes are going to be too tough for their own good,” said Kai Kara-France while speaking to the journalists ahead of UFC 305.
The New Zealand fighter also mentioned that he underwent many neurological tests that included many exercises aimed at assessing his cognitive abilities. “I did all these balance tests and eye tests and with the neurologist, it felt like an exam, I had a three-hour exam that I had to go through, like puzzles, memory tests, drawing tests, and it’s not to see how (good) you are at drawing, it’s to see how good you are at multitasking,” Kai Kara-France had further stated.
He might have been lightheartedly about it but it was not easy to find his footing at first, with all the cognitive tests. “At the start, my test wasn’t that good I was getting like 50% for my age and education, and then four months later I did the same test and I was testing at 90%.” He said. However, on a positive note, he added, “ It goes to show I was always going to heal, I just had to give it time,”
Is he better now? Will he take on Alexandre Pantoja for the flyweight title at UFC 314? Let us know in the comments down below.
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