Van doubles down on 'I'm his dad' taunt as UFC 331 rematch with Pantoja nears

Joshua Van showed no sign of dialling back his contempt for Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 331 media day on Wednesday, telling reporters “I’m his dad” and accusing the Brazilian of trying to cast him as the villain ahead of their flyweight title rematch.

The two fighters were notably civil before their first meeting, but the relationship has deteriorated sharply in the build-up to UFC 331. Tensions boiled over at a pre-fight press conference where, according to Pantoja, Dana White had to physically prevent the former champion from slapping Van. Pantoja also invoked a generational code of respect, suggesting Van’s behaviour warranted a parental rebuke — a line Van wasted no time turning back on him.

“As far as I checked, I’m his dad,” Van said. “The shit that he’s been saying, he should get smacked for that. He was being respectful after the fight and now he’s doing interviews making me the bad guy. I told him we were going to fight again so I don’t know what his deal was. It was just annoying.”

The animosity traces back to the circumstances of their first contest, which ended within seconds when Pantoja suffered a freak injury and could not continue. Van was crowned the new UFC flyweight champion as a result — a title he subsequently defended against Tatsuro Taira in one of the year’s most celebrated fights.

Van’s reading of the situation is straightforward: Pantoja lost his place at the top of the division and has been trying to undermine him ever since. He pointed to the UFC Countdown footage as an example, claiming Pantoja attempted to reframe footage of himself signalling he could not continue.

“He’s trying to be the good guy and put me in the bad guy role,” Van said. “Even in the Countdown videos, he’s trying to fix my arm and saying the video they showed was him saying ‘no more.’ It’s funny to me. We’re going to fight on Saturday and find out who is the better man.”

Van added that Pantoja’s rhetoric does not appear to be entirely sincere. “The things that he’s been saying — he doesn’t even believe it,” Van said. “When I point that out, it just pisses him off. I’m just going to be myself. As far as I know he can’t stand me, so I’m just going to be myself.”

The rematch at UFC 331 will settle the question of who truly belongs at the top of the flyweight division, with Van defending the title he won under circumstances Pantoja has never fully accepted.