Joshua Van didn’t win the flyweight title the way he might have hoped last weekend after Alexandre Pantoja suffered a freak arm injury just 26 seconds into the bout, but the new champ is now hoping to make a swift return to the Octagon for his first defense of the belt.
“I want to fight in February,” Van told ESPN. “Come to Houston if they want to get the belt that bad. Come fight me for it.“
And if Pantoja isn’t ready to fight by then, Van has made it clear he’s willing to face other challengers instead if neccessary.
“I do want to give the former champ a rematch, but it’s whoever wants the belt come fight me for it,” Van stated.
There are certainly a number of other options for Van at this stage, with Tatsuro Taira having strengthened his case for a title shot after TKO’ing ex-champ Brandon Moreno at UFC 323 last weekend, while just last night Manel Kape KO’d former title contender Brandon Royval in the main event of the final show of the year.
That being said, according to Pantoja’s coach, the UFC appear to be open to giving Pantoja the rematch.
“They want to have an immediate rematch, but everything will depend on how long Pantoja is out,” Marcos da Matta told the ‘Overdogs Brasil’ podcast. “If it’s a reasonable amount of time, there will be an immediate rematch. If it’s a longer time, the division really can’t be left standing still, and we understand that.”
Whether Pantoja could be ready in time for February is another matter, but the good news is that the injury doesn’t appear to be as bad as it first looked, so he could certainly return sooner than anticipated if all goes well.
“We went to the doctor today. We got good news, nothing was broken,” da Matta said on Wednesday. “So, we’re going to wait and see what happens over the next two weeks. It’s still too early. We’ll see how long he’ll be out. From there, the UFC, Dana White, [UFC Chief Business Officer] Hunter [Campbell] and [UFC matchmaker] Mick [Maynard] will take the necessary steps.”
It should be noted that it might not be set in stone that it has to be February that the fight would take place, particularly given that Van’s suggestion to have it in Houston would mean the bout would take place at a UFC Fight Night 268.
That’s an event that already has a credible headliner lined up between Sean Strickland and Anthony ‘Fluffy’ Hernandez.
And it would be a bit surprising if the UFC opted not to keep the title fight for a numbered event instead, like for instance UFC 325 on March 7th, where it would serve well as the co-main event to the headlining ‘BMF’ title bout between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira.
For now though it seems everything hinges on the next update from Pantoja’s medical team.
