The UFC’s new flyweight champion Joshua Van will make his first title defense against Tatsuro Taira at UFC 327 on April 11th in Miami, Florida.

The original hope had been that Pantoja would recover from his elbow injury in time to have an immediate rematch against Van, but though he’s made good progress it looks like he won’t be back until mid-2026 at the earliest, and so Taira now gets the opportunity instead.

The 24-year-old Van won the 125lb title with a win over Alexandre Pantoja back in December, but perhaps not quite in the manner he might have hoped as a freak arm injury to the champion just 26 seconds into their fight left him unable to continue.

Still, Van is an exciting young fighter who has put together an overall 9-1 record since joining the UFC in the summer of 2023.

That includes his current six-fight winning streak, which has seen him beat the likes of Brandon Royval, Bruno Gustavo da Silva, Cody Durden and Edgar Chairez.

The 26-year-old Taira joined the UFC back in 2022 and has also put together a very solid run of 8-1 in the years since.

Taira did lose out to Brandon Royval via split-decision back in 2024, marking the only defeat of his overall 18-1 career record, but he’s since rebounded with back-to-back victories last year against Sung-Hyun Park and Brandon Moreno to take the No.3 spot on the rankings.

Van vs. Taira isn’t currently being billed as the headliner for UFC 327, which will also feature the likes of Dominick Reyes vs. Johnny Walker, Tatiana Suarez vs. Loopy Godinez and Paulo Costa vs. Azamat Murzakanov.