Manel Kape warns Joshua Van of having 'delusional confidence' before UFC 336

Manel Kape sees himself completely controlling the tempo against UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van.

Kape (23-7 MMA, 8-3 UFC) challenges Van (18-2 MMA, 11-1 UFC) in the UFC 336 main event on Jan. 30 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto (Paramount+). Van is fresh off a successful title defense against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 331 last month, when he erased any doubt from a "fluke" win in their first fight at UFC 323.

"Honestly, everything that I saw is what I expected," Kape told MMA Junkie. "I think Pantoja just fought too emotional, you know? He got too emotional in the fight, made a lot of mistakes, but Joshua Van is a show. What he's been showing in other fights – boxing, resilience, and he was durable. But still a lot of mistakes there, still a lot of holes, and that's what I expect to explore."

Kape is riding plenty of momentum with four-straight stoppage wins. He sees many holes in Van's game that he's ready to capitalize on.

"The game plan is very easy," Kape said. "I know a lot of mistakes he had for the lack of experience, for not being too long in this sport, and I just think that so many guys didn't exploit that. I think they just spent time boxing with him. Even if I want to spend time boxing with him, I can spend boxing with him because I come from this. I have this knowledge. I have this instinct of boxing, but there are a lot of things people need that they didn't exploit that I will definitely exploit to make this fight as easy as I can.

"I can see things that can make me going for the finish early than I expect. So, I'm definitely going to surprise him, and then I can tell it's going to be frustrating because he likes to have these brawl fights. We're not going to get to that position because I'm going to dictate the pace. I'm going to dictate when we should go brawl, when we should go slow, and then when I can change the tempo of the fight. So, I have all this set up, and definitely this is what's going to happen. ... This is the end of the road."

Van has leveled up his game in and out of the octagon. He managed to get under Pantoja's skin before their rematch, but Kape has the gift of gab himself.

"Of course, having the belt gives you a different confidence, but don't come with that confidence with me because it's going to be very delusional confidence," Kape said. "Because you're going to fight a better man, a better fighter than you with more experience. Anything you do, I do better. Honestly, I see him like my fan. He tries to be a version of Manel. He's my fan, but I'll show levels."