Alexandre Pantoja Vs. Joshua Van Breakdown

UFC Flyweight Champion Alexandre Pantoja defends his belt against Joshua Van at UFC 323 this weekend—here is a breakdown of the fight.

Pantoja arrives into the fight on an impressive run of form. He is undefeated in his last eight fights, with his last defeat coming all the way in July 2020 against Askar Askarov. Pantoja secured the belt with a win over Brandon Moreno at UFC 290 in 2023 and has since made four successful defenses of the title. Meanwhile, Van is also on a good run. He has won five bouts on the spin, beating the likes of Brandon Royval and Bruno Silva. His only UFC loss came against Charles Johnson last year.

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The Approach

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Pantoja will prioritize closing the distance and negating Van’s speed by taking the fight to the floor, where he can exploit his submission threat. If Van defends, Pantoja will maintain the clinch, utilizing foot sweeps and boxing against the cage to deplete Van’s energy and set up subsequent takedown attempts. Once the fight is on the ground, Pantoja is one of the most dangerous back-take specialists in the UFC.

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Van’s tactical approach is to maintain striking distance, utilize his speed to outpoint Pantoja. Van’s significant strikes per minute rate (8.86) is his greatest weapon. Van should use multi-punch combinations—tripling the jab and mixing straight punches with hooks to the head—forcing Pantoja to rely heavily on his chin and defense. To counter Pantoja’s relentless pressure, Van must invest in the body early. This is a crucial tactic for slowing down the champion. Van holds a high takedown defense rate (81%), but he has never faced a grappler like Pantoja. His path to victory hinges on keeping the fight upright.

Full Card

Merab Dvalishvili vs. Petr Yan — Bantamweight Championship

Alexandre Pantoja vs. Joshua Van — Flyweight Championship

Brandon Moreno vs. Tatsuro Taira — Flyweight Bout

Henry Cejudo vs. Payton Talbott — Bantamweight Bout

Jan Błachowicz vs. Bogdan Guskov — heavyweight/" class="internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2">Light Heavyweight Bout

Prelims

Grant Dawson vs. Manuel Torres — Lightweight Bout

Terrance McKinney vs. Chris Duncan — Lightweight Bout

Maycee Barber vs. Karine Silva — Women’s Flyweight Bout

Nazim Sadykhov vs. Farès Ziam — Lightweight Bout

Marvin Vettori vs. Brunno Ferreira — Middleweight Bout

Edson Barboza vs. Jalin Turner — Lightweight Bout

Iwo Baraniewski vs. Ibo Aslan — heavyweight/" class="internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2">Light Heavyweight Bout

Mansur Abdul-Malik vs. Antonio Trocoli — Middleweight Bout

Muhammad Naimov vs. Mairon Santos — Featherweight Bout

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