Joshua Van is the new flyweight champion after Alexandre Pantoja suffered a gruesome broken arm just 26 seconds into their UFC 323 co-main event fight.
Pantoja came out firing right away trying to overwhelm his young challenger but Van showed good patience weathering the storm. A head kick from Pantoja was counted and caught by Van but as the Brazilian tried to catch himself on the ground, his arm just snapped.
Pantoja immediately grabbed his arm and waved off the fight with Van stopping before throwing a punch as the referee intervened. The stoppage came at just 26 seconds into the opening round as Van becomes champion and Pantoja now awaits word on the extent of the damage done to his arm.
“The people of Myanmar, now the world will know of us,” Van said after being crowned champion. “I didn’t know what happened. He just stopped. The ref was like ‘something’s wrong.’ He’s one of the greatest of all time.
“I didn’t want the fight to go that way. Maybe the UFC will figure something out. Let’s go, whoever you got in front of me, I’ll fight.”
Replayed showed Pantoja’s arm snapping, although it wasn’t immediately clear if a bone was broken or he just suffered a severe dislocation. The way Pantoja fell with his arm bending the wrong way certainly didn’t look good and it’s obviously a disappointing end to what was a dominant reign atop the 125 pound division.
Obviously, Pantoja would normally deserve an immediate rematch but there’s no telling how long he might be out of action. If he’s sidelined for a significant period of time, Tatsuro Taira could slip into a championship fight after he stopped former title holder Brandon Moreno on Saturday.
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