Lone'er Kavanagh backing Joshua Van against Manel Kape
Lone'er Kavanagh has all the respect in the world for UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van and believes he'll have another successful title defense when he faces Manel Kape.
Lone'er Kavanagh has no reason to doubt Joshua Van, who has proven himself time and time again as the best flyweight in the world. So, when the UFC flyweight champion takes on Manel Kape at UFC 336, the favorite in that fight is obvious to Kavanagh.
Joshua Van deserves respect, says Lone'er Kavanagh
UFC 336 will mark Joshua Van's second consecutive main event, as he defends his flyweight belt against bitter rival Manel Kape in the headliner. One fighter who will keep a close eye on the main event is the #6 ranked Lone'er Kavanagh, who gave his prediction for the bout in a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. As Kavanagh says, there's no longer any justification to doubt Van, who is coming off a strong unanimous decision win over one of the greatest flyweights of all time and the former champion, Alexandre Pantoja. So, when asked who he is leaning toward as the favorite, it was Van all day (5:10):
"You can't really bet against Joshua Van anymore, do you know what I mean? He proved himself against Pantoja twice. So, maybe towards Van."
Soon, the conversation shifted to how well Van did against Pantoja in their UFC 331 encounter, with Helwani asking Kavanagh if he was surprised by anything he saw. Naturally, Kavanagh was completely honest.
"Well, yeah. The way he did it, I was surprised. I thought it was a phenomenal fight and he had an answer for everything that Pantoja threw at him."
Kavanagh himself is coming off a stellar win, having just fought this past weekend at UFC 333, scoring a first-round knockout over the dangerous Ramazan Temirov, who was on a 12-fight win streak, with 8 finishes. For Kavanagh, it was his first fight since a scrappy but disappointing third-round submission loss to Brandon Royval at UFC 329. He'll look to continue climbing the rankings and put that loss behind him as he chases after a title shot of his own.
As far as Van and Kape are concerned, both men are hyper-confident heading into their UFC 336 bout, having traded barbs on social media numerous times before and after being booked to face each other, and the animosity will only heighten as the card approaches.
