When Joshua Van makes the walk to the Octagon on Saturday night at UFC 317, it will be his sixth fight within the past 12 months, a run that began with a humbling loss to Charles Johnson in Denver last summer that helped set the young flyweight on a path to title contention.
“I don’t wanna make excuses and take nothing away from Johnson, but I wasn’t in the right mental (state),” began Van, who makes his second appearance on a numbered UFC event this month opposite Brandon Royval this weekend in Las Vegas, reflecting on the setback that became the catalyst for his current run of success.
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Watch UFC 317 on Sportsnet+
Ilia Topuria faces Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title and Alexandre Pantoja defends his flyweight title against Kai Kara-France. Watch UFC 317 on Saturday, June 28 with prelim coverage beginning 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and pay-per-view main card starting at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.
“My fight kept falling off — I was supposed to fight in April and it was cancelled, cancelled, cancelled — and it got to the point where I didn’t even want to train. Going into my corner at the end of the second round, I was like, ‘God, I think I can handle myself; I don’t need you,’ and then right away I was like, ‘Oh (bleep)!’”
The ascending 125-pound star from Houston by way of Myanmar let out a quick laugh at the memory.
“I was like, ‘I didn’t mean that! Now I’m gonna get knocked out,’ and then BOOM! I got knocked out.”
Van laughed longer and harder at his prophetic, karmic comeuppance.
“It was a good, humbling moment because my head got too big. I got feeling like nobody could touch me,” he said, smiling. “I feel like that was the best thing that ever happened to me because it set me back to fight unranked guys and things like that. Had I won that fight, they would have put me with the top guys, and I don’t know if I was ready, so I feel like everything happened for a reason.
“Shouts to Johnson for humbling my ass.”
Since that evening “The Mile High City,” Van has been rolling.
He hustled back into action a few months later, winning a tough fight with Mexican veteran Edgar Chairez at UFC 306 before closing out his 2024 campaign with a solid decision win over Cody Durden. This year, he kicked things off with a dominant win over then-unbeaten Japanese prospect Rei Tsuruya, and then jumped into the fray with his original UFC 313 opponent, Bruno Silva, earlier this month at UFC 316 in New Jersey.
Competing in the final preliminary card bout of the evening, Van rolled, turning in his most impressive performance to date as he out-boxed and ultimately finished the ranked Brazilian late in the third round to extend his winning streak to four.
Upon returning home to Houston, the 23-year-old was all set to celebrate with family and friends when his phone rang. It was his manager, Jason House.
“Thank God they called me before I started drinking,” Van said in his quiet, syrupy drawl that rightfully sounds like a mashup of his adopted hometown and the fact that he only moved to the United States a little over a decade ago. “The party was just about to start and Jason called and was like, ‘Hey — do you wanna fight?’
“So I drank a whole lotta water.”
House was calling to see if he wanted to step in opposite Royval, who was originally scheduled to face Manel Kape in a title eliminator just a few bouts prior to Alexandre Pantoja defending his flyweight title against Kai Kara-France in Saturday’s championship co-main event.
“It’s just me,” Van said with a smirk when asked about his hectic schedule, torrid climb up the divisional ranks, and whether any of this has felt too fast. “I wanna fight the best, so after I beat Bruno Silva, I wanted to fight the top guys, and here comes the opportunity to fight No. 1. What am I supposed to say, ‘No?’
“When they called me, I didn’t think twice about it,” he added. “I was like, ‘Hell yeah I’ll take the fight.’ Shout-out to Royval for giving me a chance; he could have said no, so shout out to him.
“But we’re here to take over.”
The talented Van envisioned this year as his time to break out, telling Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com “2025 is the takeover year” heading into his December bout with Durden, adding, “We’re going to stay busy just like we did this year, maybe busier. I want to stay as active as possible.”
Regardless of the outcome of this weekend’s contest, it has been mission accomplished for Van, who has reached this cusp of title contention in just two years on the UFC roster, and a little more than four years after making his professional debut.
Not bad for a kid whose Auntie was the one that put the idea of fighting for a living and representing his people in his head just a handful of years ago.
“This one time I got into a fight with this guy that was training Muay Thai, and I beat the (expletive) out of him, so one of my homeboys was like, ‘You should do UFC,’ and I was like, ‘What the (expletive) is the UFC?’” Van said, detailing the initial steps in his journey from throwing hands in the streets to competing inside the Octagon. “I lived in Iowa at that time with my Auntie, and when I got home, I had little bruises on my face. She was like, ‘Come here. Let me talk to you,’ and asked me, ‘Did you win?’ I said yeah and she started to talk to me, that’s when the tears started coming out.
“Usually when I got in trouble, they were like, ‘Why would you do this?’ and yelling at you, but she wasn’t yelling at me. She was asking me how I feel about these types of things. She told me, ‘Anybody can fight in the street, but only a real man fights for his country and his people, things like that.’ She was like, ‘Look at Manny Pacquiao. He fights on the biggest stage, fights for his people.’ That really got me.
“That night, I couldn’t sleep, so the next morning I was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be a fighter,’” he added. “I told her to call my mom, and I came back to Houston to train.”
A year into starting his career, Van connected with prolific veteran Daniel Pineda and the 4oz. Fight Club, getting on the roll that carried him to the UFC in the summer of 2023, where he has since gone 7-1 to push his overall record to 14-2 heading into this weekend’s clash with Royval.
“The coaches believe in me, they guide me to the right direction,” Van said, heaping praise on the people he’s surrounded himself with. “If I miss the gym for two days, they get on my ass like, ‘Hey man, it’s been two days!’ They keep me in check with things like that, so I know I’m with the right people.”
The combination of his undeniable natural talents and developing skills, his faith, and surrounding himself with the right people have carried Van to the precipice of a championship opportunity, with the only thing standing in the way of officially turning 2025 in to his “takeover six months” is Royval, who faced Pantoja for the title at the end of 2023 and returns to Las Vegas this weekend after registering back-to-back wins over Brandon Moreno and Tatsuro Taira to cement his place in the upper tier of contenders in the weight class.
“He fights the same way I do — he likes coming forward — so this type of fight excites me,” Van said when asked about the matchup. “It’s like, ‘OK, you want to stand here and bang? Let’s see whatchu got!’
“I feel like this match is gonna be who can outsmart who, because we both know we’re not gonna get tired in there. Strength-wise, I don’t think he’s too strong of a guy, so it’s gonna be who’s smarter?”
Should Van earn another victory — his second of the month, third of the year, and fifth in a 10-month stretch — the hyper-active flyweight hopeful will have no choice but to slow down for a moment, because he’ll be knocking on the door of a championship opportunity.
“Now that you said it, it’s cool as (expletive)!” he responded when presented with the possibility. “I don’t think about fights like that. I just go in there, train, have fun.Come fight day, we’re gonna be in that cage with that guy, so I don’t want to think about him 24/7, and I don’t really think about what’s next. I’m thinking about, ‘Tomorrow I’ve got to train.’”
FLYWEIGHT DIVISION OVERVIEW
UFC 317 is set to be a pivotal night in the 125-pound weight class, with Royval and Van likely battling to see who will be next in line to challenge for the title before Pantoja and Kara-France face off with the belt hanging in the balance two fights later.
Looking at the division beyond the foursome heading into the Octagon this weekend shows a various pockets of competitors at different stages in their pursuit of championship gold.
Contenders: Moreno, Albazi, Taira, Kape
These four are the next closest to challenging for the title beyond Royval and Van.
Brandon Moreno picked up a second straight win earlier this year by beating Steve Erceg in Mexico City after topping Amir Albazi in Edmonton last November, and will likely face another top contender in the back half of the year. Manel Kape, who has also earned consecutive victories and won six of his last seven, will be right back in the thick of the chase once he’s healthy and able to return, and since Albazi and Taira are penciled in to headline an Aug. 2 event at the UFC APEX, further clarification of where each sits in the pecking order will soon be provided.
A Step or Two Behind: Erceg, Almabayev, Ulanbekov, Temirov, Asakura
Erceg fought for the title last year, battling Pantoja tooth-and-nail in Rio before coming up on the wrong side of the scorecards. While he’s now lost three straight, he’s still very much a dangerous threat in the division. He just needs to get things moving in the right direction again.
Kai Asakura fought for the title in his promotional debut last December, got rolled, and his set to return opposite veteran Tim Elliott later this summer. How that one plays out will inform the Japanese fighter’s future in the divisional chase.
Asu Almabayev and Ramazan Temirov are slated to square off at the end of July, with the former coming in off a loss to Kape and the latter entering off a win over Charles Johnson. Both have shown promise and the winner will very much be part of the ascending pack looking to work into contention in the not too distant future.
Tagir Ulanbekov picked up a fourth straight win last weekend in Baku, Azerbaijan, outworking Azat Maksum. A member of the crew that trains under Khabib Nurmagomedov, he’s always been considered a threat, and just might be starting to show the consistency and availability needed to make a serious run.
The Wild Card: Muhammad Mokaev
The undefeated 24-year-old was not re-signed by the promotional last year following his UFC 304 win over Kape, and has since added two additional victories to his record.
While there have been no indications that he’s on his way back to the Octagon, Mokaev was in title contention when he left, and would jump right back into the mix should the two sides mend fences at some point in the future.
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