Joshua Van already heard the narrative \u201ctoo much, too soon\u201d when he accepted a short-notice fight against Brandon Royval back in June.<\/p>\n
When he accepted the offer, Van was barely a day removed from a win over Bruno Silva at UFC 316, but he didn\u2019t blink when the promotion came calling with a fight against Royval barely three weeks later after Royval\u2019s original opponent Manel Kape dropped off the card. At the time, Van was praised for his willingness to step up and save a marquee fight and it was expected he could make it a good show even if he was unlikely to actually win.<\/p>\n
Van proved everybody wrong by putting on a potential Fight of the Year and winning a decision over Royval, which cemented Van as the new No. 1 contender at flyweight with his next fight booked against reigning champion Alexandre Pantoja on Saturday at UFC 323. Of course, Van has once again heard the noise that he\u2019s not ready for this opportunity but to hear him tell it, he would have taken this fight much sooner if it was offered to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same thing they said with the Royval fight \u2014 he\u2019s too young, they\u2019re rushing him, this and that,\u201d Van told MMA Fighting. \u201cBut come on, I\u2019ve got like nine fights in the UFC. What am I supposed to do? Wait around just because I\u2019m young?<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to fight for the belt. I want to fight the champion. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re rushing me. If I get my way, I [would have fought] for the title years ago. I think this is the perfect timing mentally, physically, I\u2019m well prepared right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van enters the fight as an underdog, but that\u2019s nothing new to him either.<\/p>\n
He understands that\u2019s just part of the game and Van promises he\u2019s approaching this title fight with the same swagger and confidence that got him this opportunity in the first place. Van has a lot of respect for Pantoja, but he also wasn\u2019t sitting around obsessing over the matchup before it got made.<\/p>\n
\u201cPantoja, I never thought about him even after that I knew I\u2019m getting that fight,\u201d Van said. \u201cNow that we\u2019re in fight camp, I started watching him. I\u2019m the type of guy that\u2019s like take one fight at a time. I don\u2019t want to focus on everybody else and things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know even half the division. I don\u2019t even know the names of the half of the people in my division. I fight this guy so I\u2019m watching this guy type of things. Right now the focus is on Pantoja.\u201d<\/p>\n
With four title defenses already on his r\u00e9sum\u00e9, Pantoja has established himself as not only the best flyweight in the sport currently but he\u2019s started earning recognition as perhaps one of the top 125-pound fighters in history alongside former UFC champion Demetrious Johnson.<\/p>\n
Pantoja has rattled off eight wins in a row overall with four of those ending by submission, so he\u2019s definitely earned the praise he\u2019s received. None of that matters much to Van.<\/p>\n
In fact, Van argues that past opponents holding Pantoja in such high regard probably played a part in their downfall \u2014 a mistake he promises not to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they fought Pantoja, a lot of people give him too much respect,\u201d Van said. \u201cEven Kai [Kara-France], I don\u2019t think he fought the same way he usually fights. Pantoja, he didn\u2019t even have to try too hard to take him down because Kai was just backing up, backing up, and usually when you\u2019re backing up against a wrestler, you get taken down. If Kai would have fought the way he usually fights, he could have done so much better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what me and my team talk about, too. The main thing is just be myself come fight day because nobody fights like Joshua Van. I don\u2019t fight like nobody else, too. That\u2019s going to be something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van understands the dangers Pantoja represents and he\u2019s not ignoring that possibility that this fight could test him in ways he\u2019s never been tested before, especially when it comes to his opponent\u2019s durability.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s good. He\u2019s very, very good,\u201d Van said about Pantoja. \u201cHe\u2019s not a technical guy but he\u2019s a dog. He\u2019s bringing that fight no matter [what]. It don\u2019t matter how bad you f*ck him up, he\u2019s always trying to come back and give you that dog fight. I feel like a lot of people crumble because of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can hit him as hard as you can but he will always come back. Sometimes that type of shit breaks guys. He\u2019s a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Van can get the job done, he\u2019ll be the first person to hand Pantoja a defeat in over five years and he\u2019ll become champion just 10 fights into his UFC career. It\u2019s a lot of pressure and expectation to heap on the shoulders of a 24-year-old fighter, who arguably hasn\u2019t even reached his athletic prime, but Van knows he\u2019s ready for his life to change after UFC 323.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to be a whole different Josh. I\u2019m going to wear sunglasses everywhere. I\u2019m going to act like a superstar,\u201d Van joked. \u201cNo, I\u2019m playing with you. I haven\u2019t thought about it. Right now I\u2019m just thinking about the fight Dec. 6. It\u2019s going to be a great fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just like to keep the same people around me. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be any different just because of the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joshua Van already heard the narrative \u201ctoo much, too soon\u201d when he accepted a short-notice fight against Brandon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702,3194],"class_list":{"0":"post-322914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}