Alexandre PantojaJeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Alexandre Pantoja continued piling up title defenses at UFC 310 with a second-round submission win over Kai Asakura at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It didn’t take long for the action to get going in this one. The champion confidently came to the center of the cage and tried to land the first salvo, but the contender responded with a flying knee.
The ensuing exchange turned into a scramble and top control for Pantoja.
However, that was short lived and the two worked their way back to the feet. Pantoja wasn’t afraid to exchange with the former bantamweight champion and still survived the round.
The second-round didn’t work out so well for the challenger. He was able to land a few shots, but the champion jumped to a back take gainst the fence. From there he was able to sink in a rear-naked choke that rendered Asakura unable to continue.
Pantoja now has three consecutive title defenses since winning the title back in July 2023 and joined a few good lists.
The flyweight title has been pretty slippery since Demetrious Johnson’s reign of 11 title defenses from September 2012 to August 2018. Pantoja is the first champion to defend it three times since then and Deiveson Figueiredo is the only other champion to defend it twice in that time frame.
The Brazilian continues to make his case that he’s the best in the world at 125 with a seven-fight win streak. His victory over Asakura, who was the bantamweight champion of Japan’s RIZIN Fighting Federation, lends more credence to that claim.
However, there’s still a long way to go before he can reach the likes of Demetrious Johnson. Steve Erceg was ranked 10th in the flyweight division when they met and this title defense comes against a UFC newcomer.
There are plenty of challenges awaiting the champion.
Rematches with Brandon Royval and Brandon Moreno are both options. He mentioned them in an interview with Stake heading into this fight.
“It was meant to be Brandon Royval who has just come off two victories,” he said of his next challenger. “Then you have Brandon Moreno who is a big star and the former champion doing a great job with Amir Albazi. Kai Kara France is also up there but he only has one victory after two losses.”
Pantoja has two wins over Royval so it’s hard to picture that being the next fight. However, a rematch with Moreno would make some sense. The first fight was a split decision and Moreno just beat rising contender Amir Albazi.
Regardless, Pantoja showed why he’s the champion again on Saturday night.