Daniel Cormier: Joshua Van should defend UFC title before Alexandre Pantoja rematch

UFC commentator Daniel Cormier has given his thoughts on what the future should hold for new UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van.

In the co-main event of UFC 323 last weekend, Joshua Van surprised many by becoming the new king of the UFC flyweight division. Of course, the way in which he did so was a bit anti-climactic, as former champion Alexandre Pantoja suffered an arm injury early in the fight that left him unable to continue.

Alas, Joshua Van has worked hard to get to this point, and the 24-year-old celebrated like you would expect any young fighter to celebrate if they had just become a UFC world champion. Alas, with Pantoja now on the shelf, many are wondering what exactly is going to be next for him.

In a recent episode of his podcast with Chael Sonnen, Daniel Cormier explained why he thinks Joshua Van vs Tatsuro Taira should be next.

Daniel Cormier’s view on Joshua Van’s immediate UFC future

Pantoja had been beating everybody, but now he’s going to be out for a bit,” Cormier said on his “Good Guy/Bad Guy” show with Chael Sonnen. “That was a real injury. It will take some time. I believe that Tatsuro Taira, after beating Brandon Moreno and finishing Brandon Moreno, should be fighting for the belt. I looked over at Mick Maynard last night (at UFC 323) and I said to him, ‘Book them tomorrow.’ 

“He goes, ‘What do you mean?’ I go, ‘Tatsuro Taira got hit 10 times against Brandon Moreno, nothing happened.’ They were boxing for about 45 seconds, he goes for a takedown, he ends up in that weird triangle position with Moreno, and they stay there the whole round. … There’s no damage on either side.

There are fight cards at the beginning of the year where you could say, hey, I know Alexander Volkanovski has a fight on Feb. 1, generally we like to do two title fights on these pay-per-views. Why not make this the second fight (at UFC 325)? Tatsuro Taira and Joshua Van. Van won’t say no, then you turn them around. 

“That’s two months since Pantoja got hurt. Say the winner of that fight needs six months before the next fight, now you’re eight months post Pantoja’s injury. Now you’ve either got him going into the rematch with Joshua Van, or he’s fighting a brand new champion. The whole weight class seems refreshed because it kept moving.”

Quotes via MMA Junkie