UFC flyweight contender Manel Kape has defined why he considers Alexandre Pantoja‘s arm damage to be a technical mistake.
Earlier this month at UFC 323, Alexandre Pantoja defended his UFC flyweight championship towards Joshua Van. Nonetheless, within the early exchanges of that struggle, Pantoja fell again to the canvas and prolonged his arm to attempt to soften the blow – however as an alternative, he suffered a gnarly-looking damage. Joshua Van, in the meantime, was declared the brand new champion, and can look to defend the strap early in 2026.
As for Alexandre Pantoja, he has already mentioned a number of occasions that he plans on coming again stronger from this. Whether or not or not he’s capable of regain the belt, in fact, is a unique matter altogether, particularly provided that the likes of Manel Kape and Tatsuro Taira are actually sniffing round in the hunt for a championship alternative themselves.
In a recent podcast with Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo, Manel Kape gave his ideas on what went down with Alexandre Pantoja.
Manel Kape discusses Alexandre Pantoja’s UFC 323 damage
“It was a technical mistake by Pantoja [his injury]. If you go to the bottom, you by no means prolong your arm. This can be a primary factor in jiu-jitsu. You roll, and also you let it go. You can not prolong your arm. It was a technical mistake to rise up quick.”
“We didn’t discover out who the higher man is that night time. It’s occurred, Joshua Van is the champion, and the division has to maneuver ahead.”
“After I get to the belt, no matter it’s, it’s welcome. It’s welcome to the celebration.”
No matter your view on what occurred to Pantoja, the overwhelming hope is that he isn’t out of motion for too lengthy. He had an epic run with the world title, and it will be a disgrace to see his profession fizzle out.
