Alexandre
Pantoja was still bleeding when he arrived at the UFC 301
post-fight press conference on Saturday night.
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That wound was well-earned, the product of a well-timed elbow
landed by opponent Steve Erceg
over the course of a grueling, five-round fight. While the blow had
Pantoja leaking from his scalp, it couldn’t weaken the champion’s
resolve, as he retained his flyweight belt with a unanimous
decision triumph at the Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
“You’re not gonna take me out. As long as I’m breathing I’m going
to be fighting back,” Pantoja said. “I did expect the fight to end
sooner. But again, the Australian guy was very tough, he’s going to
be very [tough] in the division. But you can see that right away
when that elbow landed, I tried to stop the bleeding with my hands.
But that’s part of it.”
Erceg was an unlikely title challenger, earning his opportunity
after three victories and less than a year fighting under the
UFC banner. The Australian proved to be a deserving opponent,
but Pantoja was confident that the scorecards would be in his favor
at the end of the night.
“I think I clearly won the first three rounds of the fight. The
fourth round could’ve have been his. The fifth was mine. I
definitely think it was 4-1,” Pantoja said. “This was very tough.
This is a guy from Austraila. A guy very tough that people didn’t
really know. He came in there to die. He was prepared to die, and I
think that’s what it’s all about when you fight for a
championship.”
According to Pantoja, Erceg’s emergence at UFC 301 is a testament
to the quality of the flyweight division as a whole.
“I’ve always said this division is entirely tough. You can take the
10th-ranked guy and fight against the champion, and you saw exactly
that tonight,” Pantoja said. “This division is all about work. You
can’t move up in the rankings just by talking. I’m really happy to
see this. I think it was a watershed moment for this division.
We’ve been having main events in Mexico, there was a main event
last week between flyweights. I’m very happy to see this
moment.”
It’s also a division where extended reigns are difficult to come
by. Case in point: On Saturday, Pantoja became the first flyweight
king to earn two successful title defenses since Demetrious
Johnson in 2018. Ultimately, such accomplishments don’t define
the Brazilian known as “The Cannibal.”
“Those are just stats. My legacy is at home, my legacy is with my
kids. And numbers really don’t matter in this division,” he said.
“We saw the 10th-ranked guy in this division against the
champion.
“It’s like two universes colliding. I’m over here, I’m happy with
my family and everything. He was over there crying. He had his
wife, he had his dad. It’s a very tough sport, nobody’s happy
ending up in second place in MMA.”