While Kai Kamaka III hasn’t had the worst of it, the Hawaiian has seen the Professional Fighters League season format take a toll on fellow fighters.
Kamaka headlines PFL 9 opposite Brendan Loughnane in a featherweight semifinal on Aug. 23 at The Anthem in Washington, D.C. It will mark Kamaka’s third outing within a span of four months, a campaign that began with back-to-back decision wins to advance to the PFL postseason.
“The Fighting Hawaiian” says his gym, Xtreme Couture, which has built a reputation for preparing fighters for short-notice outings, has been of help while fighting so frequently in the PFL season format. However, Kamaka has also seen the format take on toll on others like his teammate, PFL light heavyweight Sadibou Sy. Kamaka revealed that the Swede, who dislocated his thumb in a freak injury loss to Joshua Silveira to start off the 2024 season, has been “banged up” all season. However, “The Swedish Denzel “has since bounced back with a TKO win Andrew Sanchez this past June.
“The team right now has helped me a lot getting ready for this fight. There’s a few guys in different weight classes that have been through this process,” Kamaka III said during a recent PFL media call. “We have Sadibou [Sy], his locker is right next to mine. You got couple of featherweights that have done the tournament. But they only can give you so much. I see where it can be rough on some guys, the tournament. I’ve seen was banged up all season. He barely had a full camp with his hand. So I see where it can be rough on the body. Luckily this fight is the healthiest I’ve been all season.”
Xtreme Couture is home to a plethora of talent from all over the world, which means it has fighters competing all over throughout the year. And Kamaka is setting an example of stepping up for his teammates. While the 29-year-old hasn’t burned out, he has experienced a hectic year so far, traveling all around to corner his teammates. With Kamaka’s schedule, he notes that his family are also the ones making sacrifices.
“This whole year has been crazy as far as sacrifices just for myself, coming from my family,” he said. “Since the beginning of the year, I was cornering Dan Ige in February against Andre Fili; I hopped on a flight to go to Hawaii for two weeks; then headed to Saudi Arabia to corner Ray [Cooper III] and then a few weeks later, I corner Jeremy Kennedy in Belfast. And then boom, four weeks later I was fighting Bubba Jenkins.
“So this whole year I’ve been making a lot of sacrifices for myself. For my family. My family is making sacrifices. And then past five months I’ve been fighting back-to-back and now going to the third fight. It’s taking – not a toll – but this year has been crazy one for my family.”
