While Steve Erceg
found Alexandre
Pantoja to be respectful leading up to their UFC 301
fight, he didn’t like the champ’s post-fight demeanor.
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Erceg earned the opportunity of a lifetime, jumping several spots
in the rankings for a title shot against Pantoja at UFC 301 in
Brazil on May 4. While Pantoja retained his flyweight strap with a
unanimous decision win, Erceg showed that he can hang with the best
by giving the champ a real run for his money.
While Erceg had nothing but respect for Pantoja leading up to the
fight, the Australian has now developed mixed feelings due to some
post-fight comments “The Cannibal” made. During an appearance on
the „Show Me the Money“ podcast, Pantoja said that Erceg
hits like a girl. Taking issue with Pantoja’s comments, Erceg notes
that the Brazilian certainly didn’t look like he had been hit by a
girl after their fight.
“He’s a nice guy, obviously to his family. I liked the way he
carried himself,” Erceg told Main Event. “He was nice to me but then
afterwards he said some stuff about, oh I hit like a girl and all
that sort of stuff. If you want to say that sort of stuff to me,
you don’t need to be respectful to me and then talk trash outside
of that. So, I don’t know how to feel about it. I want to obviously
still punch him in the face. Like if I hit like a girl, I don’t
know what girls you’ve been around but your face was bloodied up
and cut up after the fight.”
Erceg has always maintained that he believes he can beat Pantoja
and blew his chance at UFC 301. “Astro Boy” reiterated his stance,
claiming he needs a couple of years to beat Pantoja, who he
believes is “deficient” in several aspects.
“Give me a year, give me two years,” Erceg said. “There are a few
little things I need to fix, and I really feel I can smoke this
guy. I hate the fact that that guy beat me. He’s like so deficient
in so many areas, and he’s a champ. People talk about how the
flyweight division is the most technical in the UFC and to have
some guy that strikes like that, bothers me greatly.”