Alexandre
Pantoja and Joshua Van
both claim to have tricks up their sleeves for their rematch.
Pantoja (30-6) will look to reclaim the
Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight title from Van (17-2)
in their rematch at UFC
331 on Sept. 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Both
125-pounders have identified holes in each other’s games that
they’re looking to exploit.
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Alexandre Pantoja’s coach breaks down their UFC 331 flyweight
title rematch
Pantoja’s muay thai coach at
American Top Team, Anderson Franca, says the Brazilian has some
surprises in store for his Octagon return. He believes Van will try
to keep the fight standing as he will be concerned about Pantoja’s
ground game. However, Franca claims Pantoja can surprise Van on the
feet as well and predicts a precise fourth-round finish.
“Van’s fight with Taira gave us a lot of elements to study in terms
of how he might approach this fight,” Franca told Sherdog. “We have
Plan A and Plan B. We’re bringing some surprises. Pantoja is
extremely motivated and our expectations couldn’t be better. This
was a particularly good training camp. Parrumpa really pushed his
conditioning so he would be able to go hard for all five rounds if
necessary. I believe Joshua Van will want to keep the fight
standing and emphasize his boxing. I think he’ll be concerned about
Pantoja’s grappling, but Pantoja can surprise him on the feet as
well. Still, I believe Pantoja will get the finish in the fourth
round.”
Joshua Van explains the opening he plans to exploit against
Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 331
Meanwhile, Van says he’s noticed a chink in Pantoja’s armor that he
plans to exploit. He also says he isn’t worried about the former
champ’s grappling and even believes he could slip in a sneaky
submission. The 24-year-old champ plans to finish Pantoja within
three rounds.
“We work on defending that position, but maybe I’ll be the one who
gets him in the rear-naked choke,” Van told Full Send MMA. “I
showed with Taira I’m not scared of the ground; I’ll look for a sub
if it’s there. We’ve studied him and seen a little hole that he has
in his game that we are gonna capitalize on. There’s a couple of
things I can’t speak on, but it’s going to be done within three
rounds.”