UFC 305: Refreshed Kara-France out to crash local hero Erceg's party in Perth

That old chestnut that absence makes the heart grow fonder is as tried and true as a proverb comes, even when that very thing you yearn for – in the case of UFC flyweight Kai Kara-France - may end up leaving you bloody and concussed.

After the longest 14 months of his professional career, Kara-France is poised to re-enter the Octagon against Australian Steve Erceg at UFC 305 in Perth on Sunday.

And with his pals and teammates Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker joining in on the fun, Kara-France has never been so happy to be back deep in the hurtlocker at City Kickboxing.

"It's been an awesome camp," Kara-France told SENZ's Scotty & Izzy. "Twelve weeks of pushing and I've missed it.

"I've taken time away from the sport due to injury and life got busy. So, when I'm back in my normal setting, it's a bit of gratitude, but just, being more present because you've missed that. You've missed waking up sore, you've missed pushing yourself to your limits.

"When you're in the trenches and you're deep into camp, you're tired and you're sore but you keep turning up because, you know, the guy next to you is in the same boat that you're in, it's awesome.

"All the behind the scenes, all the blood, sweat and tears you put into it. That's where the confidence comes from. It's been amazing energy at CKB."

The Aucklander was originally slated to make his comeback against the infamous Manel Kape in September, only to be thwarted by a concussion suffered during training that forced him to withdraw from the UFC 293 contest.

But as it turns out, the chips appear to have fallen in even better favour for Kara-France, who now has the opportunity to move right to the front of the queue for a title shot if he can get past Perth product Erceg – one of the success stories of the division over the past 12 months who'll have the weight of the RAC Arena firmly in his corner on Sunday afternoon.

Since June 2023, Erceg his gone from his promotional debut to within a whisker of shocking world champion Alexandre Pantoja on the Brazilians home turf.

His first bout back from that maiden defeat will be with Kara-France, who has spent that entire stretch on the shelf, at least competitively.

Returning to spoil Erceg's – who he describes as a "nice fulla" - homecoming party would be an undeniable way to catch the attention of the matchmakers and likely earn his first crack at a fully fledged UFC belt.

"This is what I love - I love fighting the best guys," Kara-France explained. "I love the challenge of testing myself.

"I'm still ranked number four in the world. He wants to take my spot. He just fought for the title. So these are the fights you want, guys that have just fought for the world title, came up short.

"He's a hometown boy. Go in there and spoil the party, take him down in his hometown and get my ticket back to a title shot. He's pretty well rounded. We're making sure we're covering everything.

"But I got the best team in the world, to kind of dissect and game plan for this and no moment is too big for me or for our team because we've been there and done it before."

Kara-France and his team have left no stone unturned in the pursuit of excellence in Australia. They've broadened their training horizons by heading south to take advantage of High Performance Sports New Zealand's National Performance centre in Cambridge, where they've looked to tap into some of the same methodology that's helped the NZ Olympics team register its most successful Games in history earlier this month in Paris.

"It's been very specific and very detailed," said Kara-France. "We've really gone above and beyond, tapping into high performance sports, doing testing at the facilities the Olympians have been using, just tapping into that next level of trying to get one percent better.

"I think that's been a massive thing for our gym because we've got such a high level system. That sport specific side of things can always get upgraded. So that's what we've been doing, in this camp especially. It's just been tough, tough rounds."

Fourteen months is a long time to wait to wash the bitter taste of a highly contentious defeat out of your mouth – as is the case with Kara-France's most recent outing against Amir Albazi.

But all that waiting is just about done, and "Don’t Blink' intends on making up for lost time.

"I'm not going to go and point fight and try to just get a win, I'm going to try and take this guy's head off. That's the kind of intention that I have for this.

"I'm coming in, tapping into my tipuna, tapping into my ancestors and going after it."

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