The youngest champion in the UFC has his first title defense.
Flyweight beltholder Joshua Van took out challenger Tatsuro Taira in a wild back-and-forth bout at UFC 328, notching the win via fifth-round TKO. Taira didn’t love the stoppage, but he was clearly in an unreasonable amount of trouble after sustaining significant punishment throughout the fight.
Van (17-2) originally won his belt via an absolute fluke — the freak injury of Alexandre Pantoja — but this win was completely earned. Van out-landed Taira 131-55 in significant strikes while stuffing 13 of 21 takedown attempts. Taira (18-2) didn’t do much with the attempts that landed either.
The bout had the distinction of being the youngest title fight in UFC history with the 24-year-old Van and 26-year-old Taira. It was also the first time two Asian-born men fought for a UFC title.
Taira seemed to hold the advantage for most of the first two rounds, handily winning the ground control game. He didn’t do much with that control, however, and the fight soon turned when Taira went for a kick and Van responded by leveling him with a hard right square to the face.
The fight could have ended there had more than 30 seconds been left on the clock, but Taira survived.
That punch wound up being a sign of things to come in the third round.
Van landed power shots at will over the first four minutes and had a prime opportunity to end it via submission at one point. Taira escaped out of that rear-naked choke attempt, however, and mitigated the threat over the last minute with another successful takedown.
The fourth round may have been the closest, with Van still holding the advantage standing up while Taira had him on the ground a couple times. And then the finish in the fifth, which was the culmination of several minutes of punishment.
“He’s a tough motherf***er, Tatsuro,” Van said after the fight. “Shout out to my coach Daniel Pineda. He said, ‘Go the body and you’ll finish him.’ As soon as I go to the body, it’s over.”
As tough as he is, Taira’s loss continues an unfortunate streak by becoming the eighth Japanese fighter to lose a UFC title fight. The country, one of the biggest in the world for MMA, is still waiting for its first UFC champion.
With Van still atop the flyweight division, a rematch with Pantoja represents the natural path forward now that the Brazilian has had time to recover. Manel Kape is still waiting in the wings, but it was Pantoja who was on hand in the Prudential Center on Saturday. Van accepted the challenge when suggested.
“You better get your s*** right,” Van said to Pantoja. “We can run it back if you want.”
Check out full UFC 328: Chimaev vs. Strickland results and highlights here, as well as Uncrowned's play-by-play for the entire main card.
