Joshua Van walked into Crypto.com Arena on September 19 with a title almost nobody believed he had earned. He walked out with the same belt and a completely different reputation.
Van beat Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision at UFC 331 in Los Angeles, taking scorecards of 49-46, 49-47 and 50-45. It was his second defense of the UFC flyweight championship, and the first one that settled an argument instead of starting one.
The 26-Second Asterisk Is Finally Gone
When these two first met at UFC 323 last December, Pantoja dislocated his elbow 26 seconds in and could not continue. Van became champion in less time than it takes to tie a shoe, and the sport never let him forget it.
That was a rotten way for a reign to start and a rotten way for Pantoja’s to end. The Brazilian had defended the belt four straight times across roughly two and a half years, beating Brandon Royval, Steve Erceg, Kai Asakura and Kai Kara-France. Nobody wanted that decided by a joint popping.
So the rematch was the actual verdict, and Pantoja made Van earn it. He took the champion down early, climbed onto his back in the second round, and spent real minutes controlling him on the mat.
Van solved it anyway. He tightened up the jab, stacked combinations as the rounds got later, and dropped Pantoja with an overhand right in the fifth. His post-fight line hit as hard as the punch: “A lot of people said that was an accidental win … well, doubt me now.”
Twenty-Four Years Old and Running the Division
Van is 24, sitting at 18-2 as a pro and 15-2 inside the UFC. He is the first UFC champion out of Myanmar, he trains in Houston, and he just outworked a 36-year-old Pantoja who arrived at 30-6 and fought like the belt was still his.
The scary part is the trajectory. Van went five hard rounds with the best flyweight of the past decade, ate his best grappling, and still won the championship rounds outright on two of three cards. Fighters this young usually spring a leak somewhere. He did not.
Flyweight spent years being treated as the division the UFC almost deleted. It now has the most watchable champion on the roster and a main event that took Fight of the Night on a card where Arman Tsarukyan and Patricio Pitbull both scored first-round finishes.
Manel Kape Is the Right Next Fight
Manel Kape wasted no time calling for it, and he should get it. The No. 2 ranked Portuguese contender is riding a four-fight knockout streak and said Van is “the perfect style for me to paint a masterpiece.”
He is correct about the styles, which is exactly why the fight works. Kape throws with bad intentions and has no patience for feeling anybody out, and Van has proven he will stand in the pocket and trade volume with whoever shows up.
Pantoja deserves a rebuild fight rather than a trilogy. He lost this one clean across 25 minutes and has nothing left to prove at 36. Kape against Van is what the division is asking for, and after September 19 there is no reason left to shield the champion from anyone.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.