Contemplating candidates for Joshua Van’s first title defence

The smartest thing you possibly can say concerning the flyweight title battle at UFC 323 is that it was nice whereas it lasted. Alexandre Pantoja and Joshua Van completely threw down for all 26 seconds of it, exchanging heavy photographs in each instructions earlier than the champion went for a head kick that the challenger caught and used to power him to the mat.

As Pantoja reached his left hand out to interrupt the autumn, his elbow bore the brunt of his physique weight and bent in the wrong way of the one elbows are supposed to bend. Fight over. Pantoja’s reign halted. Van, the brand new flyweight champion. Just like that. 

A freak damage is among the final methods anybody desires to see a title change arms. But it occurs. An unlucky actuality {of professional} sports activities. How lengthy Pantoja’s sidelined is anybody’s guess — the extent of his damage hasn’t even been confirmed. But it’s protected to imagine it’ll be some time earlier than he can resume coaching, not to mention step into an octagon for a deserved alternative to battle for the belt he’d held for 30 months.

And within the meantime, the division should transfer on. Van took minimal injury within the battle and is a particularly energetic fighter as is — the Pantoja battle was his fifth in 12 months — so the UFC may as effectively get the 24-year-old rotated for his first title defence someday early within the new 12 months.

Who may that come towards? That’s what we’re right here at present to discover. There are already two fights amongst high flyweight contenders booked for early 2026 — Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Amir Albazi and Asu Almabayev vs Brandon Moreno. So, they’re all out.

Meanwhile, Kai Kara-France has stepped away from the game; Steve Erceg’s misplaced three of his final 4; and Brandon Royval’s coming off a loss after getting stopped within the UFC’s remaining battle of the 12 months final weekend. No choices there. 

That leaves solely two fighters in flyweight’s present top-8 remaining. And you can also make a good case for both of them getting the primary crack at UFC’s youngest champion.

Recency bias is actual and Kape has it in his nook after his first-round TKO of Royval on Saturday. That was the 32-year-old’s third consecutive stoppage victory over a ranked flyweight and second straight efficiency of the night time. He has as a lot momentum as anybody within the division. 

Kape’s path up to now has been a winding one after he made the leap from RIZIN — the place he vacated a bantamweight title he’d simply received — to the UFC early in 2020. His debut was twice delayed by damage and pandemic circumstances exterior his management, and when he lastly entered the octagon in 2021, he promptly dropped his first two fights.

Now, the lacking context there’s that the primary was towards Pantoja, who was starting a run to turning into the second-greatest flyweight within the sport’s historical past, and the second was a razor-close short-notice battle towards Matheus Nicolau that proved extraordinarily difficult to evaluate and resulted in a controversial cut up choice. Not for nothing, all 22 media members who submitted scorecards to MMA Decisions previous to the outcome being learn dominated the battle in Kape’s favour.

So, one loss that aged in addition to doable and one other that almost all believed was questionable. Undeterred, Kape ran off 4 straight wins from there over the subsequent three years. But once more, that doesn’t inform the complete story. Interspersed between these victories had been seven battle cancellations, two weight misses, and an uncommon USADA drug check discovering that didn’t cross the brink for suspension however did require Kape to finish a six-month monitoring program.

Perhaps you’ve picked up on Kape’s profession fixed — weirdness follows him in all places. 

He culled controversy on both aspect of his UFC 293 win over late substitute Felipe dos Santos, throwing a water bottle at his authentic opponent — Kara-France — previous to the battle and utilizing a homophobic slur to taunt him afterwards. Kape tried to battle his UFC 304 opponent, Muhammad Mokaev, in a lodge hallway throughout battle week, sparking a brawl days earlier than his unanimous choice loss. His win over Bruno Silva in 2024 noticed Kape take up a trio of groin strikes, producing a degree deduction for his opponent.  

And extremely, Kape was the catalyst for the fateful collection of occasions that led to Van ending Pantoja’s generational run. After a damaged foot in coaching pressured Kape out of a battle with Royval in June, Van stepped in, received in a battle of the 12 months candidate, and platformed that into his title shot and victory over Pantoja this month.

So, naturally, after stopping Royval on Saturday, Kape tried to reinsert himself among the many title image within the oddest means doable:

“Now baby, hey, listen, very well. I’m here, your daddy,” Kape mentioned to Van by means of the digicam. “Your daddy’s going to take your diapers, alive. On the new deal, Paramount deal. I’m going to take your diapers, alive. Be ready.”

And he wasn’t performed there, asserting later that not solely is he Portugal’s second-most well-known sporting determine after Cristiano Ronaldo, however he’s additionally the UFC’s most marketable fighter in Japan, the place “people ask me to put a hand on the bellies of [pregnant women] so their kid’s born as a samurai.”

He’s a madman. One who should create an fascinating promotional battle for UFC when contemplating him for a title shot, between his simple leisure issue and the riskiness of what he may say or do, jeopardizing the battle. Wherever they land, Kape’s firmly within the dialog now. Although there’s one other fighter on the rise who may present the self-proclaimed “king” of Japan a problem for each that title and Kape’s championship alternative.

What higher means for UFC’s first champion born within the 2000’s — and first to even problem for a belt — to start their reign than towards one other early Gen Z’er? That’s what Van would get in Taira, a 25-year-old Japanese transplant who’s run his document to 18-1.

A continuing takedown menace with silky clean transitions and lightning-quick again takes, Taira poses a dynamic problem for any opponent who lets him get inside grappling vary. He’s received UFC fights through armbar, triangle, and face crank, not but needing to succeed in into the deep bag of chokes he possesses amongst his submission arsenal. And he has demonstrated an evolving stand-up sport and continued to point out hanging developments all through his rise as a prospect.

Of course, it’s most likely a stretch to nonetheless be referring to Taira as a prospect at this level. He already has 9 fights within the UFC after debuting within the promotion when he was simply 22. And he started preventing at a excessive degree lengthy earlier than that, as a 16-year-old in Japan’s Shooto group. 

He ripped by means of 9 novice fights in lower than a 12 months — undefeated, in fact — earlier than turning skilled at 18 and operating his Shooto document to 10-0 over the subsequent 4 years. That’s when the UFC got here calling and Taira instantly introduced his presence with dominant victories in his first 5 contests. That earned him his first massive alternative towards one-time flyweight title challenger Alex Perez, whose knee buckled underneath Taira’s weight in a takedown, leading to a second-round TKO.

Taira’s lone setback got here subsequent, in an exhilarating, five-round battle of the night time towards Royval, which he dropped in a razor-thin cut up choice — 48-47, 48-47, 47-48 — for his first profession loss. But he’s since bounced again with two straight TKOs, spoiling Hyun-sung Park’s undefeated document earlier than dominating the one-time flyweight champion Moreno at UFC 323.

Talk a few resume for a 25-year-old. Three of Taira’s final 4 opponents have both fought for his division’s title or held it. And his lone loss in that run was extraordinarily aggressive. There’s little else he may do to earn a title shot wanting defeating Royval in a rematch.

But Royval has already had a crack towards Van and got here up quick. You may insist that Taira first face Albazi to find out the subsequent title challenger. They had been booked to battle in August earlier than Albazi was pulled throughout pre-fight medical screening. But Albazi’s now booked towards Horiguchi, and he dropped a unanimous choice to Moreno, who Taira simply ran by means of.

Ultimately, if Taira’s time isn’t now, it is going to be quickly. His expertise and document are simple and he’s nonetheless years away from what should be his aggressive prime. UFC President Dana White not too long ago indicated the promotion’s curiosity in returning to Japan and you may guess they’d need to make Taira a focus of that occasion. 

Taira difficult Myanmar’s Van in Tokyo could be a becoming solution to high an Asian card. As would Taira vs. Horiguchi in a conflict of headliners from Japan’s new and previous guard. And relying on how the UFC performs its playing cards, it’s doable that the matchup may tackle much more weight with a title on the road.