Alexandre Pantoja has had 10 long months to recover, spend time with his family and think about getting back what was once his.
Now the former flyweight champion is healthy, hungry and ready to reclaim the UFC title when he challenges Joshua Van at UFC 331 on Saturday night.
“It’s a long 10 months. After two years with the champion(ship), 5 titles fights, 6 title fights, at some points, good. Take time off, enjoy my family, enjoy myself, but in the same points I’m very hungry to conquer one more time,” Pantoja told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
“After two days (following) my fight with Josh I’m back to the gym, start training, because I know I can’t take too much time off from the gym. It’s going to be (tougher) to get (to) this high level again. That’s why I’m back so early after a huge injury.”
Pantoja had some fun talking about the age difference between himself and Van. He joked that some of Van’s antics almost made him want to give the youngster a little old school discipline, but he knows it only added more hype to the fight.
“He do a pretty good job. I had to (educate myself on these younger generations). I’m from the 90s. In that time, if you don’t respect your mother, your father, (they’re) going to slap you. At some point I (thought about doing that to Van), but Dana White stopped me,” he said with a smile.
“I think everybody take more attention about this fight. This fight is amazing.”
“Manel Kape is next. I don’t know who’s going to fight with him, I expect myself, and Manel is one of the best. He fight for so long, he’s old generation like myself,” he said.
“It’s good to see someone like him fight so much time, so long to this moment in his career, and I really want to fight with him. For the melt much better.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Alexandre Pantoja above. He challenges Joshua Van for the UFC flyweight title at UFC 331 on Saturday night.