It turns out Alexandre Pantoja could have returned to fight Joshua Van at UFC 327 for his former flyweight title.
Pantoja lost his title to Van at UFC 323 after his arm folded back on itself off a Van takedown. The match was called just 26 seconds in, and all of a sudden Pantoja’s impressive four title defense streak was over.
Many expected “The Cannibal” to be out for a long time given how nasty the highlights of his dislocated elbow injury were. But he and his team kept insisting that he’d be back
quickly and could take an immediate rematch against Joshua Van. That didn’t end up happening — Van will now face Tatsuro Taira in the co-main of UFC 327 in Miami. But according to Pantoja, he’s now feeling good to go and could have made the April 11th date.
“The UFC asked me about the fight, but if I can remember, it was the last days of January,” Pantoja told Ariel Helwani in a new interview. “In that time, two months ago, I said ‘No, maybe I can fight in June.’ But after that, after one month, February, March, beginning of March, I think I’m ready to fight. If the guys asked me, maybe I’m ready to fight in Miami.”
“But that’s OK. I can enjoy watching the fight. I think for that fight, it’s a real chance for Joshua Van to prove he’s the champion of the world. That’s the real fight for the belt because with me, he didn’t have a fight … If the [UFC] calls me and says ‘Hey, someone’s out.’ Maybe I say ‘I’m in.'”
While Pantoja clearly wants to get a chance to avenge that loss on his record to Van, he holds no negative feelings towards the new flyweight champion for celebrating after winning the belt.
“That’s the only way for him that Joshua Van wins this fight,” Pantoja said. “His celebration, of course he won the belt. But he won the opportunity to not fight with me. The first 30 seconds of the fight, I scored on him so many times that he tried grappling with me. And that’s what happened. I think he celebrated because of all that.”
“But I’m not judging because that’s the dream for everybody. It was in his destiny to have this belt, and now everybody has the opportunity to see if Joshua Van is the real champion of the world or if he just won a ticket from Willy Wonka. F–k, man, that kid is very lucky.”
Joshua Van fights Tatsuro Taira on April 11th at UFC 327. If the 24 year old wins and keeps up with his rapid fight schedule (he fought four times in 2025), we could see Van vs. Pantoja 2 pretty soon, possibly even before the end of summer.
