Alexandre Pantoja | Repeat The Feat

"I finished Asakura with an amazing choke, and that's good for me, and it made a good statement to everybody to put more respect on my name."

Pantoja's victory over Asakura extended his impressive win streak to seven, with the last four wins coming in title fights. Now firmly established as the man to beat at 125 pounds, Pantoja will take on Kara-France this weekend at UFC 317, and the Brazilian said he's looking forward to the challenge of fighting his second Kai in successive fights.

"The same name! Kai Asakura, now Kai Kara-France. I love the coincidence! Maybe we'll have another ninja choke coming, who knows?" he grinned. 

"But they're completely different fighters. The fight stance, the style, they fight different, but still, he's a good challenger. A very competitive fighter, doing all this stuff, the Haka and everything. It makes me excited to fight with that guy."

The Kiwi challenger is a familiar foe, too, with the pair having faced off before in the quarterfinals of The Ultimate Fighter: Tournament of Champions, where Pantoja claimed the victory on the scorecards. But that fight was back in 2016, and he said that, almost nine years on from that first meeting, both of them are markedly different fighters now.

"It's always different," he said.

MORE UFC 317: Coach Conversation | Ilia Topuria vs Charles Oliveira

"When I fought Kai, I had a huge cut to my ear. But it's a completely different fight right now.

"I see the different things that Kai Kara-France has. He has a family right now. He has kids. He has a reason to fight. And because I think about that, I think that's good (motivation) for me. 

"All the time, I (look at) my opponent as the best in the world. That's why I'm training so hard for this moment. But I'm going to still be with this belt. The same thing happened in 2016, when I beat Kai. Now I want to beat Kai in 2025."

To do that, he'll have to run the gauntlet of Kara-France's knockout power, which is among the best in the world at 125 pounds, and Pantoja admitted that he's been impressed with his opponent's defensive wrestling skills.

FOLLOW @UFCNEWS: On Facebook | On Instagram | On X | On Threads

But while some see Pantoja's clearest path to victory coming via his grappling skills, the Brazilian world champion said that he'll step into the Octagon on Saturday night as a complete mixed martial artist, ready to use any and all of the skills at his disposal to get the job done.

"Kai has some of the best takedown defense in the whole division. That's so nice to have one guy like that, because everybody knows how my grappling is working in the Octagon, and that's a good challenge," he said.

"But I don't just focus on my grappling. I fight MMA, and I put everything together. Maybe people don't realize how hard I punch, but maybe you will see that in this fight. Kai is going to feel my hands, too."

Pantoja is racking up the wins and the title defenses, and more people are starting to talk about him as one of the UFC's very best pound-for-pound talents. But he's leaving that topic to others and is staying laser-focused on Saturday night's fight.

WATCH: Alexandre Pantoja's Fight Week Interview

"I look in the calendar and I don't have June 29, you know? I just think about June 28," he explained. 

"June 28, 9:00pm, Pacific Time – that's the time, you know? And, after that, my life will come back, But before that, man, I don't have June 29."

When June 29 does come, Pantoja expects to still have championship gold over his shoulder, though he fully expects to have to walk through the fire before he gets his hand raised in victory.

"I think it's going to be a very competitive fight," he stated.

"I have five rounds to prove to all the world that I'm the best fighter in the division. All the time, I say that it's a new chance (to prove that). I don't feel like I'm champion of the world right now. I want to show for myself that I'm champion of the world on June 28."