{"id":53704,"date":"2025-08-08T20:06:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T20:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53704\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T20:06:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T20:06:04","slug":"alexandre-pantoja-reopens-super-fight-talks-versus-merab-dvalishvili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/53704\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandre Pantoja reopens super fight talks versus Merab Dvalishvili"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja has changed his mind about a potential super fight versus Bantamweight king Merab Dvalishvili.<\/p>\n

Both Pantoja and Dvalishvili are in the midst of dominating their weight class, riding extensive win streaks over many of their respective division\u2019s top contenders. A few months ago, however, Pantoja said he wasn\u2019t particularly interested in moving up a division for a double champ opportunity, as he wanted to focus on defending his 125-pound belt and really clearing out that division.<\/p>\n

Now, Pantoja is changing his tune. The Brazilian is already lined up for his next title defense opposite rising knockout artist Joshua Van<\/a>, but he\u2019s grown more interested in facing off with Dvalishvili as well. In addition to Van, he still views plenty of potential challenges at Flyweight in the upcoming young talent like Tatsuro Taira and even Mohammad Mokaev \u2026 if the grinder is ever allowed to return to the Octagon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat fight makes sense right now, why not?\u201d Pantoja told Home of Fight<\/a> (via MMA Junkie<\/a>). \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be amazing, but the problem is, why do I need to go to 135?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep having challenges in my division,\u201d Pantoja continued. \u201cWhy not (Mohammad Mokaev if he returns)? He has good grappling. … Taira, he showed better boxing. When he fought Royval, Royval made him get in trouble. Now I see he have better boxing, he fixed a couple of things. Joshua have amazing boxing too, amazing skill, good takedown defense \u2013 I have very good challengers there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making the super fight happen doesn\u2019t entirely fall on Pantoja, as Dvalishvili is scheduled to face veteran contender Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320<\/a> on Oct. 4 in Las Vegas, Nevada. If \u201cThe Machine\u201d is able to retain his title once more and Pantoja turns away Van, then the path to a super fight is more clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, why not think about that (fight)?\u201d Pantoja said. \u201cRoll the dice. Next fight, I have a fight to fight. Merab have a fight too. It\u2019s a good fight. Sandhagen\u2019s not an easy guy, bro. It\u2019s about Merab too. Merab needs to win his fight too. … It\u2019s a good fight. It\u2019s gonna be a banger, this fight. I\u2019m excited to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Historically, the problem with super fights is that they crowd divisions and delay worthy contenders. In this case, however, it might make some sense. Both Pantoja and Dvalishvili are very active champions, and if they\u2019re both victorious in the fall, their divisions could afford a six month wait while the duo duke it out. If anything, a more deserving contender would likely emerge as a result.<\/p>\n

What say you, Maniacs: would you like to see Dvalishvili vs. Pantoja if the stars continue to align or is it better to just let the champions rack up defenses in their own class?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja has changed his mind about a potential super fight versus Bantamweight king Merab…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-53704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53704","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=53704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}