{"id":345166,"date":"2025-12-14T18:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T18:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/345166\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T18:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T18:15:07","slug":"joshua-van-responds-to-manel-kapes-call-for-ufc-title-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/345166\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua Van responds to Manel Kape&#8217;s call for UFC title in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><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> proved he is fearless of Manel Kape by accepting calls for a UFC flyweight title showdown in less than two months&#8217; time.<\/p>\n<p>Kape made his case for a crack at gold on Saturday with <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/ufc-espn-73-results-manel-062726990.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:a first-round TKO;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\">a first-round TKO<\/a> of Brandon Royval in the UFC on ESPN 73 main event. Afterward, he unleashed on the champ, claiming that Van (15-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) is &#8220;scared&#8221; and promising to be the &#8220;worst nightmare in his life&#8221; until they meet inside the cage.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>After Van won the 125-belt belt in unceremonious fashion at UFC 323 this month with a <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/ufc-323-gruesome-injury-quickly-052908927.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:26-second injury TKO result;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\">26-second injury TKO result<\/a> against <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>, the major question has been if Pantoja will be healthy soon enough for an immediate rematch, or if another contender such as Kape or Tatsuro Taira will slide in for an opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s clear Van is willing to put that belt up to grabs soon, and said he&#8217;s happy to meet <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MMAJunkie\/status\/2000111499386220867\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Kape&#039;s proposed timeline;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Kape&#8217;s proposed timeline<\/a> for a matchup at UFC Fight Night 266 on Feb. 7 in Houston, the city where Van currently resides (via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JoshuaVanBT\/status\/2000230408575983772?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2000230408575983772%7Ctwgr%5E5cbd344d436278b038a7dcce127d7c4b439b40f3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpresto-suite.gannettdigital.com%2Fquick-view%2F87763338007%3Fauth%3DfalseassetKey%3Dba804a42-8e53-496d-b41f-21d8169b22dd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">X<\/a>):<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The UFC Fight Night 266 card at Toyota Center already has an announced main event in the form of ex-middleweight champion <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/sean-strickland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sean Strickland;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sean Strickland<\/a> against <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/anthony-hernandez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Anthony Hernandez;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Anthony Hernandez<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen if the promotion would be willing to bump that fight in favor of Van vs. Kape, which would mark the rare instance of a UFC title fight on a non-numbered event.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2025\/12\/14\/joshua-van-responds-manel-kape-call-ufc-title-houston\/87763318007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Joshua Van responds to Manel Kape&#039;s call for UFC title in Houston;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Joshua Van responds to Manel Kape&#8217;s call for UFC title in Houston<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joshua Van proved he is fearless of Manel Kape by accepting calls for a UFC flyweight title showdown&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[11040,49,48,641,33997,19912,638,82,640],"class_list":["post-345166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-alexandre-pantoja","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-joshua-van","tag-manel-kape","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345166","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=345166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}