Steve Erceg expects UFC champ Alexandre Pantoja to beat Joshua Van 'pretty handily'
Van (15-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) is expected to be Pantoja's next title challenger after he defeated former title challenger Brandon Royval in a Fight of the Night effort at UFC 317. On the same night, Pantoja (30-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) notched his fourth title defense with a submission of Kai Kara-France, and the pair faced off immediately after in the octagon.
Erceg (12-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC), who put up a valiant effort against Pantoja in their title fight at UFC 301, sees the champion's grappling being too much for Van.
"I think Pantoja wins pretty handily," Erceg told MMA Junkie. "Look, Van's very young, great boxing. I can't see him being able to stop the grappling of Pantoja. Yes, he has shown good takedown defense against the Japanese bloke (Tsuruya), who had good Greco and stuff like that, but the way he wrestles compared to Pantoja is very different. Pantoja's going to make it very chaotic, and he's going to get weird little takedowns off, like, trips. He does doubles and bow locks. Once he gets him down, he doesn't have to get him down and hold him down. He'll be on his back so fast. I don't see it lasting very long."
After losing to Pantoja, Erceg went on to lose two straight to Kara-France and Brandon Moreno. He will look to snap a three-fight losing skid when he meets Ode Osbourne (13-8 MMA, 5-6 UFC) in Saturday's UFC on ESPN 72 (ESPN, ESPN+) co-main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
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