Kai Kamaka has been a mainstay in every promotion he’s ever been in, the former UFC and Bellator featherweight is currently in his first year with the PFL and sees more significance in his opponent than the opportunity. Coming into PFL D.C. the main event will see Kamaka challenge former PFL champion, Brendan Loughnane with an opportunity to secure a spot in the PFL Featherweight Championship.
Speaking to MMASucka.com ahead of the main event, Kamaka feels a win over Loughnane is more imortant to his resume and his career than going to the PFL Championship. Not just Loughnane, but having taken out respected veterans Bubba Jenkins and Pedro Carvalho, Kamaka believes his body of work in the 2024 PFL Regular Season speaks for itself.
“All the guys, Bubba Jenkins, Pedro Carvalho, and now Brendan Loughnane, you get through those three guys, that’s probably the most stacked lineup in the PFL season. If somebody wants to get through them all and then win a world title, then you get to add Brendan Loughnane on there, that’s even better. For me, this is my title fight, for me, this is bigger for me than the [PFL] championship. This will hold a lot more weight than the championship, in my opinion.”
For Kamaka, it’s not just about potentially winning the PFL world title, he wants to show that everywhere he has fought, he’s faced the absolute very best, and had success through each chapter of his career. His focus of Loughnane has not wavered, even with knowing a win will get him to the championship, saying he hasn’t even given thought about making it to the championship.
“It never set in, I’m being honest, this fight is more to me than the championship because it’s going to hold more weight for me. To win this fight for the PFL, I would beat their boy, and my path. This holds more weight for me, I can take this one with me.”
With 2024 being his first run with the PFL and the Regular Season format, Kamaka says overall things have gone well but he puts most of the value in his opponents and not the promotion he is representing.
“It’s been good, I just worry about the task at hand, I’m not worried about the names, the three letters [of the promotion] that can change with any circumstance. In my case, I’ve changed promotions for different circumstances, most of them out of my control. I go to the UFC, I fight my contract out, I didn’t get cut but I had a weird stint there. I go to Bellator right away then I go to PFL kind of naturally, the stint has been good so far, the Bubba Jenkins fight really excited me because you want to beat a guy like that. If there’s a guy you can’t lose to, it’s that guy cause you’re going to hear about it. This one [against Loughnane] I’m excited for and I’m sure everyone else is as well.”
To hear the full interview with Kai Kamaka, watch the video above.
