Kai Kara-France vs Amir Albazi UFC on ESPN 46 Odds, Time, and Prediction

Kai Kara-France is an interim UFC Flyweight challenger who lost the championship bout to Brandon Moreno last summer. Almost 11 months later, he’s coming back to the Octagon to fight a rising MMA star, Amir Albazi in the UFC on ESPN 46 headliner.

Kai Kara-France vs Amir Albazi Odds

*Odds taken from BetUS on Tuesday, May 30, 2023.

When, Where, and How to Watch?

• Place: UFC Apex in Vegas, Nevada
• Date: Saturday, June 3, 2023
• Time: ~10:00 PM ET
• How to Watch: ESPN/ESPN+

Kai Kara-France Ready to Make Himself Relevant Again

Kai Kara-France is 24-10-1 overall in his professional MMA career, with an 8-3 record in the UFC. Since joining Dana White’s promotion, he’s won the Performance of the Night bonus on two occasions. Two of his fights also got the Fight of the Night accolade. One of those is the fight for the interim UFC Flyweight Championship against Brandon Moreno in July 2022.

It was one hell of a fight, in which Kara-France was doing great until late in the third round when the ref stopped the fight, awarding Moreno a TKO win. Before losing, he landed 53 significant strikes and even made one takedown. Takedowns aren’t his specialty, but he’s great when it comes to takedown defense. In fact, “Don’t Blink” is defending nearly 90 percent of TD attempts. He’ll need to utilize those skills on Saturday when he’s fighting against a true TD expert.

Amir Albazi Determined to Stay Undefeated in the UFC

Amir “The Prince” Albazi has only fought four UFC fights so far, so it’s kind of surprising that he got to fight a headliner bout this Sautrday. The reason for that is that he’s won all of those fights, putting on an impressive performance each time.

He was hit only 90 times in those fights, suffering just one takedown along the way. He absolutely destroyed two of his opponents in round 1 – Malcolm Gordon and Francisco Figueiredo – winning by submission each time. Albazi also recorded one KO win, which happened last December against Alessandro Costa.

His only win by decision happened in the fight against Zhalgas Zhumagulov in January 2021. And before joining the UFC, he had all wins inside the distance in Bellator, Brace CF, and other promotions. It all sounds impressive, but the fact is that Albazi has never fought such a high-profile opponent as Kara-France.

Kai Kara-France vs Amir Albazi Prediction

Amir Albazi is turning into a UFC start, but we doubt that he’s got the skillset needed to beat the former interim challenger Kai Kara-France. The New Zealander is just way better striking-wise, while his takedown defense skills should be enough to neutralize Albazi’s strongest weapon.

Pick: Kai Kara-France to win