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Joshua Van of UFC
UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van revealed the injury that caused his original booking against Tatsuro Taira at UFC 327 to be postponed.
Van took on Taira on Saturday night in Newark, New Jersey, in the co-main event of UFC 328. The two flyweights went at it for nearly 25 minutes in a back-and-forth war, until Van pulled away in the fifth round and won the fight by TKO. The two men were awarded $100,000 bonuses each for Fight of the Night as a result of their impressive performances.
Van and Taira were originally set to fight at UFC 327 on April 11 in Miami, Florida, but the fight was postponed due to what was deemed a “minor injury” for Van. No one knew what that minor injury was until now, and it sounds like it was much more than minor.
Speaking to Full Send MMA, Van revealed he was dealing with a serious knee injury during his camp for UFC 327, which is why the Taira fight was delayed a month until UFC 328. Even now, he still doesn’t feel 100%.
“It was serious, man. It was bad. I couldn’t run. Even this camp, I couldn’t run until the last two weeks, I couldn’t run. Bro, my knee was (expletive). It was (former UFC fighter) Daniel Pineda and my coaches, they had a little meeting and said, ‘We gotta call it off, man.’ There was nothing I could do for cardio. I did the bike and stuff like that, spar sometimes, but my knee was (expletive), bro,” Van said.
The champ said that while his knee is feeling better, he expects to go see a doctor and have it checked out now that the fight is over.
“Yeah, as good as it can be. I’ll probably go check it out after this, but yeah,” Van said.
According to Van, fighting hurt is nothing new for him, as he also revealed he had an LCL tear when he fought Alexandre Pantoja last year at UFC 323, when he won the UFC flyweight title, so fighting injured isn’t anything new to him.
“When I fought (Alexandre) Pantoja and when I fought at Noche (UFC), I had an LCL tear, and I fought through that. So this is nothing new, but the coaches saw me take a day off. To them, that never happens, I’m the guy they tell me to take a rest and things like that, so that’s probably why they called off the fight,” Van said of the UFC 327 fight postponement.
Joshua Van reveals serious injury that caused him to rebook his originally scheduled fight with Tatsuro Taira
“It was serious, until the last 2 weeks of this camp I couldn’t run, my knee was f****d. There was nothing I could do for cardio, I’ll get it checked out soon”
As for what’s next for Van, a rematch against Pantoja makes the most sense.
Although Pantoja hasn’t fought since Van beat him via injury TKO in December to claim the flyweight title, the former longtime flyweight champ is nothing but deserving of getting a rematch for the belt he once held. Pantoja was in attendance in the crowd at UFC 328, and the camera panned directly to him after Van beat Taira, so this appears to be what the UFC is thinking.
The other option is the winner of June’s flyweight bout between Manel Kape and Kyoji Horiguchi. Both men are also deserving of fighting Van for the belt, especially with an impressive win next month. But based on Van and Pantoja having unfinished business, it feels like the rematch should be next.
Adam Martin Adam Martin is a sports journalist with over 15 years of experience. He has a speciality in MMA, while also covering the Big 4 Sports. Adam is currently a contributor to Heavy.com, with previous experience working for The Toronto Star, Sportsnet, theScore, Bookies, BJPenn.com, and MMAOddsbreaker.com. More about Adam Martin
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