It is fair to say Kai Kamaka III has thoroughly enjoyed his first season with the PFL.
In his inaugural year with the promotion, the ‘Fighting Hawaiian’ dug deep to grind out two unanimous decision victories against Bubba Jenkins and Pedro Carvalho to secure his place in the Playoffs. Opposite him in the Smart Cage tonight (August 23) will be 2022 PFL Global Featherweight champion, Brendan Loughnane.
At just 29-years-old, Kamaka III has had a storied career, competing for many of the major global promotions including the UFC and Bellator prior to his current run with the PFL. Although fully locked in on his Playoff bout against Loughnane, the Xtreme Couture athlete described just what it would mean for him to be crowned the 2024 PFL Global Featherweight champion, not only for himself, but for others that may find their career in a similar place as he did a few years ago. He said:
“That would be awesome, just to be the number one guy in PFL. It will represent a lot of things, I think it will talk a lot on many different facets of the sport. It will help guys in free agency, it will help guys in different situations kind of look at everything. If they follow my story, if they follow Brendan’s story, they will see that you just don’t give up.”
The PFL season can see those who make it to the championship final have a tough schedule with four fights in one calendar year. For some this can be daunting but for Kamaka III, it almost makes life easier as he has a regiment in place that he must stick to. Discussing the format, he said:
“I love it. It takes (away) a lot of mental stress, from different standpoints. You don’t have to worry about your schedule, before you even step in you know when your next one is, if you win or in the season, you know when that next one is, at least the first two. It alleviates a lot of stress as far as knowing when your schedule is going to be. Especially after that first couple of weeks after a fight, (when) you’re fighting in different formats after that win or loss settles you want to get back in, which happens quick but luckily you don’t need to deal with that right now. “
Unbeaten in five, Kamaka III has hit a purple patch in his career and credits it down to everything falling into place at the right time and being in the game for such a long time. He said:
"Just constant growth. Things that I have worked on, mentally physically, years prior, it is coming out now. I had a quick transition moving to Vegas and in that period of time a lot of things have happened, a lot of transitions happened with moving, then taking last minute fights, it probably wasn’t the best decision back then.
"Then yeah, just getting comfortable with the team and we are here now almost four years later to the anniversary of my UFC debut, in a main event, in Washington DC, one fight away from a title shot. You can’t go wrong with that."
