“It’s comical at this point ” – Fans react to Manel Kape pulling out of UFC Vegas 91 main event fight against Matheus Nicolau 

After Manel Kape announced his withdrawal from his main event match against Matheus Nicolau at UFC Vegas 91, fans took to expressing their thoughts.

UFC Vegas 91 is scheduled to occur on April 27 at UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The anticipated headliner was a flyweight rematch between Kape and Nicolau. However, the UFC revealed on Tuesday that Kape has withdrawn from his rescheduled bout with Nicolau, citing an undisclosed reason for his absence.

Instead, Nicolau will now face off against former title contender Alex Perez in a five-round main event.

Upon learning of the development, fans expressed their disappointment with Kape’s withdrawal and swiftly flocked to the comments section to voice their reactions. See some of their responses below:

”It’s comical at this point”

”I’m sick of this with Kape already. He’s good enough a fighter, but he has more cancelled fights than Paulo and it’s getting old.”

”Tell me a year ago that Kape would be the one pulling out back to back while Perez is fighting twice in a year I would have laughed in your face”

”Kape went from scary title contender to not being able to be fight ready”

Take a look at some additional responses below:

The Brazilian emerged victorious in their initial encounter, which occurred at UFC Vegas 21 in March 2021, after a split decision was made in favor of the Brazilian over Kape. Their scheduled bout as the co-main event of UFC Vegas 84 was cancelled the day before due to Kape’s failure to make weight by three and a half pounds.

Kape has had two instances of not making weight in flyweight fights, one of which was against Ode Osbourne in August 2021. In this bout, he exceeded the weight limit for the division by three pounds. Most recently, in September 2023 at UFC 293, Kape was able to secure a unanimous decision victory over Felipe dos Santos in his last octagon appearance.

The Rise of Manel Kape in the UFC

Despite experiencing yet another cancellation in his eventful career, Manel Kape, a flyweight hailing from Portugal, now holds a record of having more canceled fights than actual bouts during his time with the UFC.

Despite joining the UFC in 2020, Kape, who had a successful run in RIZIN, has a 4-2 record in the octagon. As of January 2024, only six out of fifteen of the flyweight’s scheduled bouts have taken place.

Despite being partly responsible for the gray markings on his Tapology page, Kape has faced multiple withdrawals from his opponents just before their scheduled fights. Despite this, he is currently on a four-fight winning streak and was close to competing for the title. Unfortunately, three of his opponents ranked in the division’s top 10 have backed out from fighting him in 2023.