Steve
Erceg is thrilled by the potential jeers and boos that will
come his way as he challenges Alexandre
Pantoja in front of the champion’s home crowd at UFC
301.
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The stars aligned for Erceg to receive a flyweight title shot
against Pantoja in the main event at UFC 301 on Saturday in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. Known to be among the most passionate MMA fans in
the world, Brazilians don’t go easy on visiting fighters. Brazilian
fans were even criticized for pelting Brandon
Moreno with bottles after his split-decision win over Deiveson
Figueiredo in their trilogy clash at UFC 283 in January
2023.
Erceg is definitely expecting a hostile crowd going into enemy
territory and is even somewhat excited about it.
“I’m definitely prepared for it,” he told Submission Radio. “I’m honestly excited for the
opportunity to get yelled at and asked to die and bottles thrown at
me. I think it’s gonna be very exciting. I can’t wait to take the
belt, get straight on a plane and fly home.”
Erceg hasn’t lost a fight since his sophomore pro bout against
Sean
Gauci in 2017. The Australian standout landed a title shot with
a knockout victory over Matt
Schnell in just his third UFC outing. Meanwhile Pantoja has
fought a who’s who at 125 pounds while going 3-0 head-to-head
against former champ Moreno, including one exhibition bout on “The
Ultimate Fighter.” Going into the toughest test of his career,
Erceg has pinpointed the most dangerous aspect of his opponent’s
skill set.
“I think honestly it’s his mental toughness,” Erceg said. “Like he
gets hit, he gets put into bad spots sometimes, but he just keeps
going forward. He gets tired and he finds a way to keep pushing the
whole fight. Somebody that’s not gonna give up is obviously a very
dangerous person. He has great skills outside of that, but some
people with great skills, they’re not winning the way they expect
to be winning, they break. But I don’t think he will break. Someone
has to take it away from him.”
While Erceg plans on trying his best to secure a finish, he expects
to walk away with a dominant decision win.
“My prediction is that he’s obviously very tough. I’m gonna go out
there and try to finish him, but in all likelihood it goes to a
decision and I win a dominant decision,” he said.