Pantoja calls legend back to UFC and says the only one who would make him move up in weight: ‘I’ve already beaten him and I’ll hit him again’

This Saturday (5), Alexandre Pantoja defended his flyweight belt masterfully by defeating Steve Erceg by unanimous decision in the main event of the UFC 301.

After the event, the Brazilian was asked about his future and called a legend back to the UFC to fight with him and said he would just Sean O’Malley would be able to make him move up a division.

With his second successful title defense in a row, Pantoja became the first fighter to retain the title more than once at flyweight since Demetrious Johnson. And it was precisely him who Pantoja challenged to return.

“In my category I have a very good division, if Demetrious Johnson is listening to me and wants to come back and try something it would be an honor for me. I think it’s the only dream I have is to fight a guy like that, who for me is one of the biggest names in the UFC, it would be a dream to fight this guy, it’s a great idea for me to defend, a lot of things to be done”, said Pantoja at a press conference.

Furthermore, the champion said he would only move up to bantamweight “to beat Sean O’Malley again.”

“I have a very difficult division to defend. I would only move up if I had to fight against O’Malley. If it were another champion in the upper category, I don’t care. I’m only interested in moving up against O’Malley, he’s a guy who talked nonsense about me, I already hit him once and I can hit him again.”

Although O’Malley only confirms that he trained with Pantoja once, the Brazilian guarantees that he “kneaded” his opponent in the sparring they did together.

UFC 301 results:

Main card

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

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

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

Michel Pereira defeated Ihor Potieria by submission (guillotine) at 0:54 of the 1st round – average weight

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