Brandon Royval shares his analysis of the next flyweight title fight.
A rivalry has developed between Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja following the sudden ending to their first fight in 2025.
Their upcoming rematch has some huge questions hanging over it following Van taking credit for the injury that abruptly ended Pantoja’s dominant title reign.
A former title challenger who has been deep in the trenches with both men recently raised one factor that fans should keep an eye out for this Saturday.
How does Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 play out? 🤔
The flyweight champion legitimized his reign by beating Tatsuro Taira at UFC 328.
Brandon Royval raises Joshua Van’s body shots as a potential key factor in Alexandre Pantoja rematch
Last year, Brandon Royval suffered a loss to Joshua Van in the promotion’s fight of the year that earned his opponent a shot at the flyweight title.
Van is expecting another barnburner in his rematch with Alexandre Pantoja as he looks to defend the flyweight title against the man he dethroned.
Royval recently broke down the matchup that will headline the Octagon’s return to Los Angeles as the only man to have fought both sides of the main event.
A big question heading into this matchup is whether Van’s output can wear down Pantoja, whose aggressive style means he has previously slowed down when fighting five rounds.
‘Raw Dawg’ highlighted one of the current champion’s key weapons when reflecting on the two clashes that he had with the Brazilian.
“Joshua Van does something unique that I don’t think any of us really do as far as like, when I fought Pantoja, I was going straight after his head,” he told One On One. “I don’t even know if I threw a body shot, whereas Joshua Van attacks the body pretty heavily. If I could go back in some of those, especially the fifth round when I fought Pantoja, I would have went after the body.”
Brandon Royval questions the longevity of Alexandre Pantoja’s durability
Brandon Royval believes Joshua Van’s body shots could be the way to stop Alexandre Pantoja from aggressively applying pressure.
That being said, he also questioned whether the toughness that ‘The Cannibal’ tends to rely on will eventually give way.
“Pantoja eats like a lot of shots and he walks through them,” Royval later continued. “But, it’s like there has to be a point where a guy like that, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s the end of that.’ You can only do that so much in your career before you’re getting dropped or something of the above and Pantoja just eats it all.
“I might have hit him with the hardest knee I’ve ever hit anybody with and he finished with a takedown and I was like, ‘What the hell just happened?’”
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