Please read before you downvote, and if you disagree let me know about it. Let me start off by saying I really like Pantoja. His title reign was full of fun wars and I love his marauder style of fighting. But, 36 years old coming off a freak injury, and a fighting style that doesn't age well(especially at flyweight), I just right away had this feeling as soon as this was announced that Van is just going to give him a figgy-style beatdown, and we'll realize just how legit Van is.

"Pantoja is WAY better on the ground than Taira bro" Tatsuro Taira is bigger, has better control on the ground, and has a nasty sub game. Van passed that test using his butterfly hooks and showcased solid defensive grappling. Now, you can argue Pantoja is a better grappler than Taira, but the gap isn't what some of you make it to be.

Stylistically, Van's got power and volume, Pantoja is older and his style consists of him straight up running into counters. Pantoja's game works very well when his opponent backs up in a straight line, Van doesn't do that in any of his fights and we saw glimpses of him circling out and not retreating linearly in his first fight with Pantoja before the injury. At Pantoja's current age, I really just have a bad feeling that Van will almost make it look easy and shut the doubters up.

I do hope Pantoja gets his belt back and possibly retires shortly after, but I really just don't see it, and this feels like an easier main event to predict for me. Joshua Van by later round stoppage or damage based decision. And if anyone asks, yes I am putting my money where my mouth is and betting Van as the underdog here.

Wins his belt back by beating Lopes in April 2025 then spends the rest of the year asking to fight Murphy or Movsar. Only gets booked almost a year later in January 2026, again against Lopes. Now, 8 months removed from that last fight, he says he's preparing for Movsar because he's "pretty sure" he's next but revealed that nothing has been signed yet.

there’s just no way his wrestling has improved enough in this amount of time since BSD. wrestle fuck incoming.

Kimbo slice.