Van de Octagon shared just 26 seconds with Alexandre Pantoja last Saturday. Van was challenging for the UFC flyweight championship. Early on, Pantoja injured his shoulder while trying to break his fall. The fight was called off and Van was awarded the win.
Although the situation was out of Van’s control, some fans criticized the 24-year-old and his team for celebrating. During a new edition of MMAFighting.com’s ‘The Fighter vs. The Writer,” Matt Brown said he understands the post-fight reaction from Van’s perspective.
“To be honest when it comes to a title like that, I don’t want to hate Joshua Van for it,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. TheWriter. “Because this is what the fact is: this guy has spent his whole life, a very short life of his, about half of mine – even if it’s not his whole life these last few years, his whole life has been to achieve this one goal, which is an exceptionally high goal.
“This isn’t ‘I want to have a net worth of a million dollars by the time I’m 30’ or something. This is an insanely hard goal to achieve and he achieved it. How he got it, does it really matter? They put a belt around his waist. This is what he dreamed of. This is what he visualized. This is what he put in the work for. So I can understand that side of it.”
As many coaches in sports say, “Never apologize for winning.” That’s the mantra Van and his team have followed. While Van’s first title defense has not yet been made official, many believe a showdown with Tatsuro Taira is in order. Taira also competed on the UFC 323 card and he scored a TKO finish over Brandon Moreno, which also caused some controversy.
During the UFC 323 press conference, Dana White said he didn’t like the idea of Van vs. Taira in Japan. While it’s certainly an idea, there’s no word on whether or not it will be in the UFC’s plans for 2026.
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