Former UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja says he is ready to rematch Joshua Van following their fight last year at UFC 323.
The co-main event of UFC 323 last December lasted just 26 seconds when Pantoja suffered a severe elbow dislocation and lost via injury TKO to Van, who became the new UFC flyweight champion. It wasn’t the way that any champion would ever want to lose their belt, but injuries happen in MMA that can cause premature endings to fights, as we recently saw in the UFC 329 headliner between Conor McGregor and Max Holloway.
After spending the last six-plus months recovering from his injury, Pantoja is back in training and says that he is ready to fight Van following the new champ’s first title defense, a fifth-round TKO victory over Tatsuro Taira at UFC 328.
Alexandre Pantoja Ready to Fight Again
Speaking to MMAFighting.com, Pantoja confirmed that he is ready to go and fight for the belt as he looks to reclaim the championship gold that he once held.
“I’m ready. 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,” Pantoja said.
Pantoja Impressed by Joshua Van
Though he’s still upset at how his fight with Van ended, Pantoja holds no grudge towards his rival, as it wasn’t Van’s fault that he got injured. In fact, Pantoja said that he is a fan of Van, and that he was impressed by his title fight with Taira.
“Real good fight. Real good fight. 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,” Pantoja said.
There have been rumors that Van vs. Pantoja 2 could take place at UFC 331 on September 19 in Los Angeles, but so far, nothing has been confirmed.
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