UFC Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja will look to defend his belt against the number 10 ranked Steve Erceg at UFC 301.
Pantoja has been on an incredible run since his last loss to Askar Askarov at UFC Fight Night: Figueiredo vs Benavidez 2 in July 2020. Since the loss, he has established a 5 fight win streak which included his title winning bout against Brandon Moreno at UFC 290.
The title winning performance had the judges split. with one judge giving Pantoja only the first round, whereas the other two edged the first, third and fifth to the now champion.
He then went on to defend his belt in a much more dominant fashion against Brandon Royval at UFC 296.
The champion had expressed a keen interest at facing the rising Muhammad Mokaev after his unanimous decision win against so it came as a surprise to a lot of fans when the bout against Erceg was announced.
'Astroboy' finds himself getting in his first shot at UFC gold in only his fourth bout with the promotion.
After establishing himself on the Australian scene from 2018-2023, Erceg received his call up to the big leagues when the UFC signed him in the middle of last year.
In his first promotional outing, Erceg faced 6 fight UFC veteran David Dvorak. Erceg instantly showed why he had been given the chance to perform on the biggest stage with a unanimous decision win against Dvorak.
He then faced Alessandro Costa at UFC 296 where he managed to cruise to another unanimous decision.
The Australian then picked up his promotional stoppage earlier this month when he landed a crisp left hook on the chin of Matt Schnell in the second round of their contest.
With a lot of the athletes above him already scheduled to fight or currently injured, Erceg has been given a huge opportunity to leapfrog many of the division and is a chance he appears to have taken with both hands.
The bout is set to take place on Saturday May 4 in Pantoja's native Brazil, in the Rio Arena, Rio de Janeiro. The rest of the card is looking strong with the likes of Michel Pereira vs Makhmud Muradov, Anthony Smith vs Vitor Petrino and Paul Craig vs Caio Borralho all slated to take place in the busy night in Brazil.
