Twenty-six seconds
That was how long their first fight lasted. UFC 323, last December. Alexandre Pantoja twisted his elbow, Joshua Van walked out with the flyweight belt, and the whole thing was over before anyone settled into their seat.
They run it back Saturday night in Los Angeles. Van, 17-2, defends the title for the second time. Pantoja, 30-6, is coming for something he does not believe he ever properly lost.
Thursday’s news conference told you where this sits. The Burmese champion had no interest in diplomacy. “We’re going to kick his backside again,” he told reporters.
Pantoja shrugged the injury off and turned it around. “That’s how it is,” he said, before pointing out that Van now gets a chance to prove the first result was no accident.
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Eight years since the UFC last set up in LA
Crypto.com Arena hosts. The promotion has not run a card in the city since UFC 227 in August 2018, when Henry Cejudo and TJ Dillashaw both left the same building, then called Staples Center, wearing gold.
The co-main event puts Arman Tsarukyan against Mauricio Ruffy at lightweight over five rounds. The Armenian still wants the belt and is already looking past this one. Asked about Justin Gaethje’s win over Ilia Topuria in June at UFC Freedom 250, he promised to send Gaethje a message after Saturday. Gaethje had faced online accusations of hiding objects in his gloves during that fight. He denied it.
Tsarukyan and Ruffy also went back and forth about Alexander Volkanovski, the Armenian claiming the Australian cannot wrestle. Ruffy pointed at the record and signed off with an “OK, my brother” that carried more than it said.
What else is on the main card
Patricio Pitbull, 37 wins and a multiple-time Bellator champion, takes on South Korea’s Dooho Choi at featherweight. Gable Steveson, Olympic wrestling gold medallist and 4-0 as a pro, meets Sean Sharaf at heavyweight. Alonzo Menifield opens proceedings against Poland’s Iwo Baraniewski, unbeaten through nine, at light heavyweight.
Main card starts at 9pm Eastern.
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