Any doubt over Joshua Van’s bona fides as UFC flyweight champion after capturing the title when Alexandre Pantoja suffered an injury less than 30 seconds into their title fight were erased on Saturday night when Van survived a tough-as-nails challenger in Tatsuro Taira. Van scored a fifth-round stoppage in the co-main event of UFC 328 in Newark, New Jersey.
Taira opened the fight with a heavy leg kick, wanting to circle at distance before suddenly changing tactics and shooting for a takedown. Taira quickly got to the body, scored the takedown and quickly advanced to full mount. A positional battle followed, with Van looking to utilize a butterfly to get back to his feet, only to nearly be caught in a guillotine choke.
Van eventually escaped from the choke attempt and got back to his feet, where he popped off a few solid punches. Van’s solid jab was eventually neutralized by another double-leg takedown by Taira. Van again escaped to his feet, only to be taken down yet again, with Taira again getting to mount and doing a little damage before the end of the opening round.
Van did a much better job of defending the takedown early in Round 2, allowing him to pop off hard combination punches that connected cleanly to Taira’s face. Taira remained relentless, however, again scoring a takedown and quickly achieving mount again. Again, Van worked the butterfly guard to get out of the worst possible position and threaten to scramble to his feet again. Despite Taira being on top, it was Van who was landing more strikes, throwing off his back as Taira was overly concerned with positioning.
After the fighters went back to their feet, Van scored a big knockdown with a right hand and attempted to drop big shots before the horn sounded to end the second round.
Taira still looked rocked coming out of the corner for Round 3 and Van took advantage with sharp punches as Taira was suddenly fighting off the back foot. Taira shot for takedowns from too far out, making it easy for Van to defend and go right back to his pinpoint boxing.
After another takedown attempt, Van landed a big knee, hurting and bloodying Taira.
A sudden jab from Van resulted in a delayed knockdown as Taira’s legs betrayed him. Van followed up with another flurry and a takedown, immediately taking the back and working for a rear-naked choke. Taira somehow survived the position and ended up back on his feet. Despite the accumulation of punishment, Taira ended the round with another big takedown, landing in side control.
Somehow, Taira continued to bring the attack in the fourth round, immediately putting Van on his back and again working to full mount. This time, Van seemed to have less energy to explode out of the bad position. When Van finally attempted to explode, he was nearly caught by a Taira triangle choke in transition.
The momentum continued to swing as Van again was able to connect with clean shots as the fight went back to standing, forcing Taira onto the defensive once again.
With the fight potentially hanging in the balance in the final round, Van opened up with big strikes. While Taira attempted to secure another takedown, Van cracked with heavy shots, eventually sending Taira reeling. As Van followed up with more big shots, the referee jumped in to halt the fight.
The official time of the stoppage was 1:32 of Round 5.
“I said I was going to finish him inside three rounds, and I almost did, but he’s a tough motherf—er,” Van said of his hard-fought victory. “As soon as I went to the body, it was over.”
Van’s next title challenge is expected to be a rematch with Pantoja, who suffered an arm injury in their title win. Van had no problem with the idea of a rematch.
“Pantoja, you better get your shit right,” Van said. “We can run it back if you want.”
