Alexandre Pantoja believes he's a top-4 pound-for-pound fighter in MMA after UFC 317
On Saturday, Pantoja entered UFC 317's co-main event to defend his belt for the fourth time, facing an old foe from "The Ultimate Fighter 24," Kai Kara-France. Already established as one of the sport's very best, Pantoja further proved himself and his greatness with a dominant performance that concluded with a third-round rear-naked choke.
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In doing so, Pantoja, 35, continued to make his case for a higher spot in the official UFC pound-for-pound rankings. Currently ranked at No. 9 for the UFC — and No. 4 for Uncrowned — Pantoja believes he should be significantly higher.
"I put Islam Makhachev first, Pantoja second, Merab [Dvalishvili] third, [Ilia] Topuria," Pantoja said Monday on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "But I'm an athlete, and how incredible Topuria is, I love watching Topuria fight, man. I'm a huge fan of Charles [Oliveira]. Charles and I come from Brazil. I believed Charles can get the victory [against Topuria at UFC 317] and everything else, but Topuria is so good.
"I said that [about] Topuria like two years ago — I'm a huge fan, I love how he fights. Topuria is amazing to get two belts. He makes what every fighter wants to make [happen] — double champ, something unique. Everybody wants to be special. Everybody wants to be unique at something, and he's on this list.
"Maybe if you put Islam [on the top pound-for-pound], Topuria and then you have Merab — Merab has fights with Jose Aldo, fighting Petr Yan, a lot of legends he's fought — and maybe myself."
Pantoja's successful fourth defense puts him ahead of all current UFC champions in that category. Counting non-title bouts, Pantoja has also defeated half the names in his division's top 15 (some twice), adding fuel to the prospect of a potential bantamweight title pursuit. Despite his continued dominance, however, the idea of a champ vs. champ fight with bantamweight's Dvalishvili still isn't in Pantoja's mind.
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"My division is so challenging for me," he said. "Maybe people say, 'You fight everybody in your division, you beat everyone.' But there's a lot of good names to fight. I still want to fight with Manel Kape. I still want to fight Amir Albazi. I still want to fight again with [Brandon] Moreno. There's so much challenges for me there. I love to fight in my division — 125 [pounds], for me, is one of the best divisions in whole UFC.
"Of course everybody wants to be unique in something, something special. Everybody want to be double champ in UFC. Of course I want to, but I protect my division. If I want to [go to] 135, it's a huge [size] difference I can get — I get 10 more pounds. I need to work much more for that. Then if I beat Merab, who's next at the 135?"
"If I have an opportunity and UFC wants that, money talks sometimes," Pantoja added. "I want to hear money talk with me. ... But I'm 125 [pound] champion. I need to defend my division."
At UFC 317, it was made clear who the likely next challenger for Pantoja's belt will be. Directly before the champion's victory, top contender Brandon Royval and surging up-and-comer Joshua Van delivered the arguable Fight of the Year and received Fight of the Night honors for theirs efforts.
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Ultimately, the 24-year-old Van unseated the No. 1-ranked Royval via unanimous decision, setting up an in-cage staredown with Pantoja at the end of the night. It was a moment that instantly generated plenty of hype for the hypothetical title tilt, but Pantoja's team wasn't exactly pleased with UFC's decision.
"My team didn't like that," Pantoja said. "It's my moment. My team's moment. But when the fight's over, one of the guys from UFC said, 'Hey Joshua, come to the Octagon.' And I'm OK with that. I'm a fighter. That's the business. When I'm inside of the Octagon, I'm Alexandre Pantoja, 'The Cannibal,' UFC fighter. I agree with everything the company did for the show. I'm OK with that. Monday, I'm back to being Alexandre Pantoja, father to Nicolas, Gabriella's husband.
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"This [staredown was] good for the company. Josh Van is amazing. I followed Josh Van in a couple fights and he looked amazing. He's a very good challenger for me. I think he's the biggest challenge I have in my whole career right now — a young kid with so much motivation, and it's going to be amazing. ... I love the challenge. I love the possibility to fight with the best guys from the whole world."
The biggest win of Van's career extended his win streak to five — a run that began this past September. Initially the Royval bout belonged to Kape, however he suffered an injury, which opened up an opportunity for Van just three weeks after the youngster stopped Gustavo da Silva at UFC 316.
Pantoja is ready and good to go, targeting December's Las Vegas year-end pay-per-view for his return. If Van is indeed the next in line after UFC 317, as all signs indicate, Pantoja expects a major challenge.
"He doesn't have a lot of wars like I do in the past. He hasn't cut weight like 35 times. This is something [different] — and I love that," Pantoja said. "He comes with amazing victories over Rei Tsuruya, Bruno 'Bulldog,' Brandon Royval — what a fight. I'm excited for that challenge.
"He's not just fresh because he's young, but no one expected him to fight [me] right now. There's no more rematches for me [with this one], so that's good for the whole division."
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