It seems like Alexandre Pantoja and Joshua Van will be the next UFC flyweight championship matchup and a previous training partner of the former has some thoughts on how that potential fight. Jose 'Shorty' Torres recently did battle with former RFF grand prix champion Hiromasa Ougikubo as part of Rizin's flyweight grand prix. Ougikubo had a prior victory over Pantoja and Torres has trained with the UFC flyweight champion. Appearing on Bowks Talking Bouts, the former UFC vet covered several subjects related to happenings inside the
When touching on Pantoja's fight with Kai Kara-France from UFC 317, Torres described a lack of excitement for the matchup based on what he described as 'a recycling type of process.' His reasoning behind this was tied to the very season of The Ultimate Fighter where Ougikubo and Pantoja fought whereby so many of the current crop of UFC flyweights have already competed against one another. In terms of fresh matchups in the division, Joshua Van certainly fits that description and he recently defeated prior number one contender Brandon Royval in a barnburner bout that also happened at UFC's International Fight week PPV where Alexandre Pantoja retained his belt.
Alexandre Pantoja vs. Joshua Van Overview from Torres
When touching on some broader weight class considerations with a potential Alexandre Pantoja-Joshua Van in the wake of their respective UFC 317 victories, Torres said,
"I don't know if Van technically deserves a title shot even though he beat the number one guy. But that's how desperate I believe the UFC is to just get new faces and new competition. I mean look at [Kai] Asakura. He didn't even have a UFC debut but his very first fight in the UFC is against the champion because the UFC has their own agenda of trying to eventually expand to Japan on that side of the world with maybe another PI like they did in China. So it's a different concept and Pantoja's a phenomenal fighter."
"He's just not as exciting as the UFC wants him to be. Even though I believe him finishing all these guys is exciting enough, I mean our job is tough. But when you're on the outside perspective, it might be different... But Pantoja's a phenomenal athlete. I believe he'll beat Joshua Van and we'll see what the UFC tries to do after. But I don't see anything huge coming any time soon. I think they'll probably bring in another fighter from a different promotion. Another champion or a highly touted name just to get their debut for the UFC belt."
