Reigning UFC flyweight queen Alexandre Pantoja was recently asked if he would consider moving up to bantamweight.
Pantoja has already defended his belt four times, including in December UFC323he will try to defend it for the fifth time when he locks horns with Joshua Van.
Before the title fight, ‘The Cannibal’ said in an interview with TMZ Sports that he would consider moving up to 135 pounds if Sean O’Malley was still the champion. However, with ‘The Machine’ ruling the division, Pantoja would prefer Merab Dvalishvili to come down and fight him. He said:
“Ten pounds is a lot more for me than for other guys. If O’Malley got the belt, I’d say I’m ready to go, but with Merab it’s different. If he gets down to flyweight, maybe it will be easy for me.”
Check out Alexandre Pantoja’s comments below:
Dvalishvili became the UFC bantamweight champion at UFC 306 after dethroning Sean O’Malley. In 2025, ‘The Machine’ successfully defended his title for the first time when he faced Umar Nurmagomedov and won by unanimous decision. For his second title defense, Dvalishvili took it back with ‘Suga’, submitting the latter in round three. In October, he joined Cory Sandhagen and won by unanimous decision.
This December, ‘The Machine’ will repeat with Petr Yan at UFC 323 as he attempts to become the first UFC champion to defend the title four times in 12 months. For now, the Georgian has no plans to move up or down a division, as he recently stated Pounds 4 Pounds.
Alexandre Pantoja praises Merab Dvalishvili, among others
Featuring such UFC champions as Merab Dvalishvili, Islam Makhachev, Ilia Topuria, Khamzat Chimaev and Alexandre Pantoja himself, the latter stated in the same interview that modern MMA fans are the happiest, as current champions have made the sport more attractive and taught other competitors to “reach a higher level.”
During the same TMZ Sports interview, ‘The Cannibal’ said:
“You see Merab, Ilia, Islam – the guys are showing everyone that they have to reach the next level. If you want to win the UFC title, you have to reach the next level. It’s one of the best eras for MMA fans, where you don’t know who is pound for pound when you have Merab, Islam, Ilia, Chimaev and myself. It’s great to be part of a time like this.”
Check out Alexandre Pantoja’s comments below:
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