“You are the reason I started this,” Kai Kara-France reveals emotional story about crossing paths with his high school bully
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Kai Kara-France talks about being bullied in high school
Kai Kara-France might be one of the best fighters in the world but little did we all know that his fighting skills roots from a very traumatic past. Recently, a fighter from New Zealand revealed a story about being bullied in high school.
The flyweight division has truly started to recognize the amazing fighter that is Kai Kara-France. The fighter from New Zealand recently made an appearance on The MMA Hour show following his win against top-ranked flyweight Askar Askarov at UFC Columbus. In the interview with Ariel Helwani, Kara-France revealed a very emotional story of how he started fighting as a young boy.
“If you follow my journey, people know that I started this because I used to get bullied. I used to be the smallest and vulnerable, shy kid, in class…and people saw me as a target,” said “Don’t Blink” talking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I didn’t go to school because I was getting beaten up every day. I was about 12-13, and that’s when I walked into a gym to get more, I guess confidence in myself and learn some self-defense.”
Kai emphasized that he did not start training in MMA because he wanted to show off or become successful. The only reason the Kiwi fighter started going to the gym was to protect himself and also avoid getting picked on in school. Kara-France has come a long way in his career and is currently the #2 flyweight in the world.
Kai Kara-France talks about bumping into bully years later
“I didn’t go for a week. Obviously, I had all these bruises on me and was in a tough spot, man. I remember getting full ‘nelson-ed’ in the bathroom and then just bullies body-shotting me,” said Kara-France talking to Helwani on the show. He also said that this was a regular day in school for him as the bullies used to pick on him because of his size and his vulnerability.
However, Kai made it out of the tough times and became a very successful fighter who is now probably just one step away from reaching gold. France said he recently bumped into one of his bullies and spoke to him which was very interesting for the fighter.
“He’s a tradie now. He was like, ‘I’ve been following your journey, bro! Big fan.’ And in my head I was just, ‘Bro, I should give you a hiding right now.’ But then I was like, ‘I should probably thank you because you’re the reason why I started this. Here we are now. Life works out.”
Watch the entire interview of Kai Kara-France on MMA Hour hosted by Ariel Helwani below:
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Prateek Athanur
(2971 Articles Published)