Joshua Van has long since moved on from how he became UFC flyweight champion after a freak injury ended his fight against Alexandre Pantoja this past December.
While he would have preferred to deliver a brutal knockout, Van can’t be faulted for how everything played out and he’s not going to turn down a championship title in a fight he officially won. That said, Van expects that he’ll cross paths with Pantoja again in the future.
Right now he’s putting his full focus on his first title defense against
Tatsuro Taira in Saturday’s UFC 328 co-main event.
“That is over with,” Van told MMA Fighting. “Right now, I’m just focusing on Taira. Like I said, me and Pantoja going to run it back anyways after this fight. I don’t think about that no more.”
Don’t expect Van to try and justify his title reign because of how it started, though he definitely agrees with the idea that Pantoja deserves another chance when he’s healthy and ready to compete again. It appears Pantoja has been cleared to return to action so now it’s just a matter of timing when he fights with hopes of reclaiming the flyweight title.
While Van definitely plans on shutting down Pantoja again, he recognizes that the Brazilian was on a remarkable run as champion, which is why he shouldn’t have to fight his way back to another title shot.
“Facts,” Van said about Pantoja deserving the rematch. “He dominated the division. It’s only right they give him the rematch. Yeah, I really hope me and him can run it back.”
Right now, Van isn’t thinking about Pantoja because he has a challenger in Taira trying to take his title away before he even gets to enjoy being champion.
The fight came together after Van initially pushed for an earlier return date and he thought he might be competing as early as February. At that time, Van had two potential opponents presented to him by the UFC, Taira and Manel Kape.
In the end, Taira got the opportunity, but it took some time to get there.
“When they first called me for the two weeks’ notice they said Taira or Manel and I said Manel,” Van said. “It didn’t go through. Then for March 7, they said let’s do it and I said yes. Both of them said no, I guess. Now the UFC is like you’re fighting Tatsuro and that’s it.
“I’m definitely going to fight all of these guys anyway. I just want to get whoever. I just chose Manel because he called me out so I wanted to run that but now I’ve got Tatsuro to worry about. After that, whoever the UFC gives me.”
There was bad blood brewing between Van and Kape as they argued over social media about potential fight dates and offers for the title fight. There’s no such animosity with Taira, who has been nothing but respectful towards Van in the days and weeks leading up to UFC 328.
That said, Van knows that having an intense rivalry with an opponent doesn’t always guarantee a better fight so he really didn’t care who the UFC gave him.
“Of course, it hypes the fans up when we talk shit and all this stuff,” Van said. “But at the end of the day, look at Manel versus Muhammad Mokaev. I don’t want to end up like that.”
For this upcoming fight, Van has heard the narrative that it’s a classic striker versus grappler matchup, but he isn’t preparing as if Taira is only going to try to take him to the canvas.
Given Taira’s style, he’s undoubtedly one of the strongest grapplers in the flyweight division and Van welcomes him trying to put him on the floor. He promises Taira won’t like the result.
“Tatsuro, he’s a well-rounded guy,” Van said. “He’s not just a grappler no more. He’s got a little bit of strikes so that kind excites me. I want to test myself against Tatsuro. He’s up and coming, he’s my age so I really want to test myself against a great fighter like Tatsuro.
“A lot of people shoot on me and you know what happened. Like I said, for him to do his ground work, he’s got to shoot and take me down. That’s that. That’s on his part to worry about. As far as I know, myself, he’s got to figure me out. It’s going to be whoever figures the other out first. I feel like he’s a smart fighter. He’s going to take his time and I’m going to take my time and then when I get my timing, we go from there.”
