Joshua Van was confident he was worthy of a title shot ahead of UFC 323 and he’s keeping that energy after actually winning it.
In Saturday’s co-main event, the 24-year-old became the second-youngest champion in UFC history (behind only Jon Jones) when he defeated flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja. Van’s shocking rise to the top was somewhat overshadowed by the nature of his win, which saw Pantoja suffer an arm injury after being tripped to the mat and the bout being waved off in just 26 seconds.
“F*ck them,” Van said at the UFC 323 post-fight presser. “If you do good, they will talk shit and if you do bad, they will talk shit, so do what makes you happy. It don’t matter what they think. I won.”
With the win, Van completed one of the fastest UFC championship runs in MMA history. The Burmese-American star debuted in 2021 and racked up a 15-2 record in just four years, defeating the like of Brandon Royval, Bruno Silva, and Cody Durden to work his way to his title opportunity.
Van didn’t see the matchup as being too much, too soon, and while he was rewarded for his confidence, he knows the outcome wasn’t exactly what fans were looking for.
“This whole week, it was kill or be killed,” Van said. “I knew I was going to win the fight, but I didn’t want the fight to end that way, for sure. As soon as he’s recovered, I want to run it back. I respect him so much. He’s one of the greatest of all time and things like that, so I do want to run it back with him.”
While a rematch with Pantoja makes sense, until the extent of the now-former champion’s injury is diagnosed, it’s unclear when that fight can be booked.
As it stands, Van already has a logical contender in Tatsuro Taira, a fellow flyweight wunderkind who scored the biggest win of his career Saturday when he became the first fighter ever to knock out two-time champion Brandon Moreno. Van hasn’t named Taira as his preferred opponent, but isn’t shying away from that challenge either.
“He looked great tonight,” Van said. “Like I said, I do want to give the champ—I mean, I am the champ now—but I do want to give Pantoja a rematch for sure, but like I said, whatever the UFC wants. Whatever it is, they’ve got my number.”
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