{"id":392545,"date":"2026-01-05T06:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392545\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T06:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T06:19:10","slug":"alexandre-pantoja-back-in-the-gym-weeks-after-ufc-323-arm-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392545\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandre Pantoja back in the gym weeks after UFC 323 arm injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/alexandre-pantoja\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Alexandre Pantoja;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Alexandre Pantoja<\/a> is back in the gym less than one month after he suffered a <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/ufc-323-gruesome-injury-quickly-052908927.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:visibly gruesome arm injury;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">visibly gruesome arm injury<\/a> and lost UFC flyweight gold as a result.<\/p>\n<p>Not only is Pantoja (30-6 MMA, 14-4 UFC) doing strength and conditioning, he&#8217;s back to combat sports training at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla., according to a video he posted Sunday on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Pantoja, 35, suffered a left elbow injury when then-challenger <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/joshua-van\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Joshua Van;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Joshua Van<\/a> caught a kick and dumped the Brazilian to the canvas. The sequence ended the bout just 26 seconds into the highly-anticipated Dec. 6 title fight at UFC 323 in Las Vegas. As a result, Van (16-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) won the title.<\/p>\n<p>As Pantoja planted his arm down, it hyperextended in the wrong direction, leading many experts to believe it was a dislocation. Shortly after the injury, Pantoja <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/alexandre-pantoja-releases-statement-ufc-054716329.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:vowed to come back stronger;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">vowed to come back stronger<\/a>. His timetable to return is still unknown.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2026\/01\/04\/ufc-news-alexandre-pantoja-arm-injury-back-gym\/88017763007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Former UFC champ already back in gym after gruesome injury;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Former UFC champ already back in gym after gruesome injury<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexandre Pantoja is back in the gym less than one month after he suffered a visibly gruesome arm&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[11160,36390,64,63,166401,786,41111,785,85,126241,787],"class_list":{"0":"post-392545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-alexandre-pantoja","9":"tag-american-top-team","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-elbow-injury","13":"tag-fighting","14":"tag-joshua-van","15":"tag-mma","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-strength-and-conditioning","18":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}