Mark De La Rosa is ready to up the ante as he faces off against Kai Kara-France at UFC Shenzhen.

The former 135-pounder is moving down to flyweight for the second time to face Kara-France in China on Saturday, August 31. Despite losing his most recent fight to Alex Perez earlier this year, De La Rosa is feeling confident about his upcoming fight.

“I’m feeling great,” he told BJPenn.com recently. “This is the first time I actually had a fight camp [and] time to prepare for someone. All of my fights have been short notice. Alex Perez was a game fighter and I took the fight on 2 weeks notice. I felt good, just [needed] minor improvements to improve my game.”

Kai Kara-France is a former Ultimate Fighter contestant. He has fought and won twice in the UFC flyweight division. De La Rosa is going into the fight with a prepared mindset and he’s confident his ability will trump his opponent’s.

“I’ve seen some of his fights and watched him on The Ultimate Fighter, but [I haven’t seen] too much,” he said. “It’s a fight, anything can happen, but I’m definitely gonna have a ground game and BJJ advantage.”

De La Rosa is working with top nutritional company Lockhart & Leith to prepare his meals in the run up to UFC Shenzhen. His coaches are helping him strategically prepare, and he’s making full use of modern technology to improve his performance such as cryotherapy.

In the same conversation, Mark De La Rosa also named one top fighter that he enjoys watching.

“I enjoy watching Colby Covington,” he said. “I don’t like how he acts and talks outside the cage, but the dude can fight. [He has] great boxing and wrestling with amazing cardio.”

When asked who he wants to fight next, Mark De La Rosa concluded: “I’ll fight whoever the UFC gives me…It’s time to make some noise at 125 [pounds].”

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/26/2019.