{"id":901903,"date":"2026-09-23T00:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901903\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T00:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T00:44:10","slug":"joshua-van-on-joe-rogans-accident-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/901903\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua Van On Joe Rogan’s ‘Accident’ Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC flyweight<\/a> champion Joshua Van<\/a> took issue with Joe Rogan’s pre-fight framing of his title defense against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 331.<\/p>\n

Van, who retained his belt in a five-round decision over Pantoja last weekend, told Ariel Helwani on Monday that Rogan’s suggestion at the ceremonial weigh-in that his first win over Pantoja was “by accident” landed the wrong way. “A little bit, I ain’t even gonna lie, man, a little bit,” Van said when asked if he took the remarks personally, per MMA Junkie. “It was kind of [messed] up that he said that. But, you know, much love to Joe Rogan. … I don’t really give a [care] what other people say, but Joe Rogan is someone that I look up to. For him to say that, it was kind of like, ‘Damn.'”<\/p>\n

Van Defends First Title Win After Injury Stoppage<\/p>\n

Van originally claimed the flyweight<\/a> strap at UFC 323 when Pantoja suffered an injury that forced a stoppage. The abrupt finish sparked debate over whether Van had proven himself the division’s best, a narrative Rogan appeared to echo during his weigh-in interview with the champion. Van settled those questions with a dominant performance in the rematch, outstriking Pantoja over 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

Rogan has not commented on Van’s reaction. The longtime UFC commentator has drawn criticism in the past for perceived favoritism in his cage-side analysis.<\/p>\n

Van is expected to be sidelined briefly after revealing a shoulder injury sustained during the fight. No next opponent has been announced.<\/p>\n

Reported via:<\/p>\n

BJPenn<\/a> \u2014 Joshua Van<\/a> criticizes Joe Rogan for spinning \u2018f\u2014\u2013 up\u2019 pre-UFC 331 narrative<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van took issue with Joe Rogan’s pre-fight framing of his title defense against Alexandre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-901903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901903","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=901903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}