Pantoja has a tough fight, but ends UFC 301 with a ‘class’ for Erceg and remains champion

Brazil continues to own the flyweight belt in the UFC. It was much more difficult than expected, but Alexandre Pantoja managed to leave Rio de Janeiro with a victory over Steve Erceg in the unanimous decision of the jurors (48-47, 48-47 and 49-46).

The fight started off very well for Pantoja. The Brazilian had a great first round, managed to dominate on the feet and even caught his rival’s back when he went to the ground. From the second round onwards, however, things started to become much more balanced. In the third, Erceg landed an elbow that opened a cut on his face and started to bother the champion a lot.

The fight was so even that coaches on both sides told their charges before the last round that they were losing and would need a knockout or a submission.

This made the fifth round very lively. Erceg tried to take the initiative with takedowns twice. But he took two beautiful sweeps and ended up in a worse position in both. And Pantoja ended the fight with a beautiful grappling “lesson”.

“I think I have to move my head more, these guys are hitting me too much. But my ground game is one of the best in the world, I train in the best gym in the world, I’m very grateful for my coaches,” said Pantoja.

Pantoja now has a cartel of 28 victories and only five defeats. He won the belt in July last year against Brandon Moreno, defended it in December against Brandon Royval and now once again against Erceg.

UFC 301 results:

Main card

Alexandre Pantoja won Steve Erceg by unanimous decision of the judges – flyweight belt

José Aldo beat Jonathan Martinez by unanimous decision of the judges – bantamweight

Anthony Smith won Victor Petrino via submission at 2:00 of the 1st round – light heavyweight

Michel Pereira defeated Ihor Potieria via submission (guillotine) at 0:54 of the 1st round – middleweight

Caio Borralho beat Paul Craig by knockout at 2:10 of the 2nd round – middleweight

Preliminary Card

Joanderson Brito defeated Jack Shore by technical knockout – featherweight

Iasmin Lucindo beat Karolina Kowalkiewicz via unanimous decision – strawweight

Myktybek Orolbai defeated Elves Brener via unanimous decision – lightweight

Drakkar Klose beat Joaquim Silva by unanimous decision – lightweight

Mauricio Ruffy beat Jamie Mullarkey by TKO at 4:42 of the 1st round – lightweight

Dione Barbosa beat Ernesta Kareckaite by unanimous decision – flyweight

Ismael Bonfim beat Vinc Pichel by unanimous decision – lightweight

Alessandro Costa defeated Kevin Borjas by technical knockout at 1:35 of the 2nd round – flyweight