Joshua Van is confident he can put the flyweight division in the lime light as UFC champion.
Van (16-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) makes his first title defense against Tatsuro Taira (18-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) at UFC 327 on April 11 from Kaseya Center in Miami (Paramount+). He dethroned Alexandre Pantoja by injury TKO to claim the belt at UFC 323.
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The 125-pound division was almost banished from the UFC at one point, but Van sees a changing of the guard in terms of talent.
“After this fight, everything will change for sure,” Van told MMA Junkie Radio. “Before I came to the UFC, the flyweight division was ass. Nobody paid attention to the flyweight division, and then I come to the division and I lit a fire.
“Now we’ve got a lot of talent. Tatsuro, myself, we’ve still got (Brandon) Royval, Manel (Kape), all these guys. Before I got to the UFC, it was like one or two people that were at the top and that was it. But now we’ve got all this talent, so after this fight, everything will change for sure.”
Van was chirping back-and-forth with Manel Kape (22-7 MMA, 7-3 UFC), who’s on a three-fight finish streak. However, the fight never materialized as Van wound up drawing Taira, and Kape is scheduled to rematch Kyoji Horiguchi at a UFC Fight Night event from the Meta Apex on June 20.
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“Tatsuro is a well-rounded guy and we were supposed to fight before,” Van said. “I’m actually excited for this fight. He’s a well-rounded guy, he’s good on the ground, he’s got a little bit of striking, so I’m ready to test myself against this guy.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Joshua Van: ‘Flyweight division was ass’ before I arrived
