Kamaka ready to take another step towards PFL title

Set to compete in a million-dollar elimination match, Kamehameha alumnus Kai Kamaka moved up in weight on Thursday for tonight’s Professional Fighters League event.

Kamaka, who is on a four-fight winning streak and has won five of six fights since being cut from the UFC, weighed in at 146 pounds for tonight’s featherweight bout against Pedro Carvalho at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls , SD

Kamaka (13-5-1) can secure a spot in the four-man playoffs with a stoppage victory over Carvalho (13-9), who fought in Bellator for the past six years before losing by TKO to Brendan Loughnane in April in his first PFL fight.

Carvalho has lost his last three fights, while Kamaka is looking to pick up a win to qualify for the PFL playoffs in the featherweight division.

The fight is the third on the preliminary card which begins at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN+.

“I grew up in Hawaii, and the Hawaiian spirit is different,” Kamaka said in an interview before the fight. “There are challenges, but these challenges make me who I am, they push me to work even harder. I have to give everything to prepare as much as possible. »

Kamaka, who trains at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, has gone through ups and downs in his MMA career.

After winning seven of his first nine professional fights, Kamaka made his UFC debut during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, scoring a unanimous decision victory over Tony Kelley in which he earned a Fight of the Night bonus.

He went 0-2-1 in his next three fights and was cut from the UFC before signing with Bellator.

His only loss since then was a controversial split decision defeat to Justin Gonzales at Bellator 279 at Blaisdell Arena in 2022.

Now a father of five and a wife he has lived with since his teenage years, Kamaka has finally found the success he has been working towards for a long time.

“These things push me to work even harder,” Kamaka said.

After fighting once a year, Kamaka scored a unanimous decision over Bubba Jenkins in his first fight in the PFL tournament in April.

Kamaka is currently fifth in the 10-man featherweight tournament, but depending on the matchups, he secures a spot in the playoffs with a stoppage victory. A decision win would mean he would have to sweat the rest of the results.

Kamaka follows in the footsteps of his cousin, Ray Cooper III, who won the PFL welterweight tournament in 2019 and 2021.

The playoffs would begin on August 23 in Washington, D.C., where Kamaka would be two wins away from a victory and a $1 million check for first place.