Video: Israel Adesanya goes wild with excitement during Kai Kara-France’s stunning KO of Cody Garbrandt at UFC 269

To say UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was happy for his teammate Kai Kara-France this past Saturday would be a giant understatement.

Kara-France welcomed former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt to the flyweight division on the main card of Saturday’s UFC 269 event in Las Vegas. The fellow City Kickboxing standout dropped Garbrandt with a big shot in the first round and continued to seek out the finish — which he eventually found to earn the biggest win of his career.

Watch Adesanya’s reaction to the stoppage below courtesy of his UFC 269 reaction video:

Following the victory, Kara-France told media members backstage at the T-Mobile Arena that he wants to face the winner of the upcoming flyweight title fight at UFC 270 in January between Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo.

“The Last Stylebender” agrees with his teammate’s sentiment.

“What did I say? When Kai knocks him out, it’s a title shot,” Adesanya said. “F*ck everything else. It’s a title shot or we riot.”

After getting stopped by Brandon Royval at UFC 253 in September 2020, Kara-France has bounced back with his first two finishes of his octagon career. Prior to his KO of Garbrandt, the No. 10 ranked flyweight in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings finished Rogerio Bontorin via strikes at UFC 259.

As for Adesanya, the UFC officially announced during the event that the champ will defend his title against Robert Whittaker in the main event of UFC 271 in February — although Adesanya responded to the announcement with a cap emoji on Twitter, signifying that may not necessarily be the case from his standpoint.

Sources close to Whittaker’s team confirmed to MMA Fighting this past week that the former champion “signed his contract weeks ago,” and expected the bout to be made official during the UFC 269 broadcast.