Alexandre Pantoja is all healed up and ready to settle the score with Joshua Van.
In December, Pantoja defended his flyweight title against Van in the co-main event of UFC 323, but was beset by disaster when he injured his arm trying to roll away after Van caught a kick just seconds into the bout. Since then, Pantoja has been out of action while he recovers, while Van successfully defended his new title in May with a fifth-round stoppage over Tatsuro Taira at UFC 328.
But now, Pantoja is fit and ready to get back to it.
“I’m ready,” Pantoja told MMA Fighting. “After December, what happened to my arm, two days after that, I went to the gym, started training with just one arm. That’s who I am. I’m not done. I’m not done. I have so much to conquer. I have so much to prove. And when you have the belt, your words [mean more]. I want to take the belt again. I want to be UFC champion one more time and keep talking to good things, about the world and things I saw in my life, make people happy. That’s what I want.”
As mentioned, while Pantoja’s been out, Van has already added a title defense to his résumé, and other flyweight contenders have been busy as well, with Manel Kape knocking out Kyoji Horiguchi, and Brandon Royval psetting Lone’er Kavanagh. For Pantoja, the continued growth of the division in his absence has been great for him, too.
“Real good fight. Real good fight,” Pantoja said of Van’s win over Taira. “Showed a lot of high-level skills. Don’t get me wrong, on the same night, you have the Chimaev and Strickland fight, you see the difference about the pace, about the high-level. That’s good to prove to everybody the flyweight division is one of the more entertaining divisions in the UFC.
“You see Manel Kape with Kyoji Horiguchi. You see Brandon Royval, all these guys put on very good show to everybody, and I think right now, flyweight is better than ever. I think what happened with me last year made the division more fire. Now I have the opportunity to take over and [beat] everybody again.”
Pantoja was particularly impressed by Kape’s win over Horiguchi at UFC Vegas 119 last month. After the win, Kape lobbied for his shot at the flyweight title, but Pantoja says he’s up first. Then he and Kape can run things back.
“Beautiful performance,” Pantoja said. “I think Kyoji Horiguchi gets very close to winning the fight, but Manel is the real deal. Manel Kape, for me, is one of the most dangerous fights in the world in flyweight. He’s the next contender.
“Of course, I have unfinished business with Joshua Van. Like, as an athlete, I know I lost the fight. That happened. But like a man, I don’t think he beat me. I’m still here. I’m ready to fight. I’m in amazing shape. Let’s see what happens next.”
