There’s something ironic about the fact that sports is all about striving for greatness, yet living through such a dominant era isn’t always so incredible.
Alexandre Pantoja is, no doubt, on a spectacular run as the UFC Flyweight Champion. He just defended his flyweight title three times within a 12-month period, taking down three names who currently reside in the top 10.
With four consecutive title wins, he has entered a territory of title excellence rarely seen in MMA. But, sadly, that success comes at a cost. The flyweight division currently doesn’t have any great options for him, but instead, there are tons of half-baked, sort-of-kind-of intriguing bouts that would’ve been interesting at a different time.
Going down the official rankings, in order, each option is imperfect for Pantoja. Traditionally, using the “best fight the best” philosophy, you’d want him to face #1 or #2 ranked talents in the division, right? Nope. Handily beat them both (Brandon Royval and Brandon Moreno) not that long ago.
You don’t want to give it to third-place Amir Albazi or fifth-ranked Tatsuro Taira, as both are coming off losses.
You might have a case for Kai Kara-France if you ignore the optics that his last win—a first-round bludgeoning of Steve Erceg—came after losses to a pair of contenders that remain placed above him in the standings. Maybe you could consider Manel Kape if you’re focused more on his two recent impressive wins and are willing to look past his loss to Muhammad Mokaev from less than a year ago.
Oh, and Pantoja beat both of them before, too.
Even giving Pantoja another wild card fight, like they already did when he fought Erceg and Kai Asakura last year, might not work. Newest UFC signing Kyoji Horiguchi is a fan favorite name that you can plausibly market for a title fight. But, training at the same gym as Pantoja, American Top Team, it calls into question whether such a matchup could even be made.
And friendships aside, Horiguchi carries the mileage of nearly 40 pro fights. Yes, he has remained a successful name in RIZIN over the past couple of years, but a New Year’s Eve performance over South African journeyman Nkazimulo Zulu—where he got dropped and took quite a beating en route to a late comeback win—proved that wins don’t always come easy for him nowadays.
It’s been a long time since flyweight had a clear top fight to make. I’m talking a pairing where you look at it and go, “Yeah, that’s the fight.” A pairing where nothing else measures up in comparison, both matchmaking-wise and hype-wise. In fact, we probably haven’t seen that since Pantoja faced Moreno back in 2023, kicking off his title run. But now especially, times are dire. There are fewer options than ever.
It’s hard to guess which fight will be next. When all of the options aren’t great, there really isn’t a terrible choice. Because everybody mentioned before got ruled out for one reason or another, leaving no real contender, that almost rules all of them back in. So, who will it be?
Moreno made a solid pitch following his win in Mexico City last weekend, wanting to headline the promotion’s Mexican Independence Day show and avenge his loss. And if he can get past his close ties to Pantoja, the nostalgia of a Horiguchi return would likely garner interest. Kara-France and Kape are coming off impressive wins, even if those followed up some forgettable outings from them. And hey, even though Royval did lose to Pantoja in 2023, he has been quite solid since then.
None of it is particularly thrilling, but one of them is soon to be picked anyway.
You can’t get mad at Pantoja for this. After all, his job above anything else is to win. But there’s no denying that the 125-pound weight class is without any real solid options for a title fight currently, and there’s only one person to blame for it. Not holding a grudge, though.
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