Before Alexandre Pantoja first fought for the UFC flyweight title, he was injured and on the sidelines for a while. Fighters don’t earn salaries, and as independent contractors, get paid when they compete.
Pantoja got a part-time job delivering Uber Eats, even as he was on the verge of competing for the championship.
Word filtered back to Dan Lambert, the owner of the American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla., about Pantoja’s side hustle.
“He is so humble and so thoughtful,” Lambert said. “And when I heard about this Uber Eats, I went up to him, ‘You don’t need to be driving Uber Eats. If you need the money, you could have come and talked to us.’ And he said, ‘No. I needed to do it to make me feel hungrier.’ ”
That hunger explains why Pantoja — not the most athletic fighter in a division filled with great athletes — will be gunning for his fourth successful flyweight title defense on Saturday when he rematches with Kai Kara-France in the co-main event of UFC 317 in Las Vegas.
The list of fighters who have successfully made three or more consecutive successful defenses in the UFC is short, and contains the names of some of the greatest in history.
Jon Jones.
Anderson Silva.
Georges St-Pierre.
Demetrious Johnson.
And, yes, Alexandre Pantoja.
Pantoja doesn’t have the athleticism and explosiveness of many, if any of those athletes. But what he does have is an insatiable hunger and a work ethic that puts 99.99 percent of the population to shame.
“If you look at and separate the individual skills and you ask, ‘Does he have the greatest striking?’ That’s easy: No,” Lambert said. “Does he have the greatest wrestling? No. His jiu-jitsu is pretty, but is he Charles Oliveira? Well, no.
“But if you mix it all in and you add the cardio on top of it, you’re talking about a guy who is right there on top.”
In years past, being the top flyweight in the world was often damning a fighter with faint praise. Pantoja said the flyweights are as good as they’ve ever been, called 2024 “an amazing year for flyweights,” in the UFC.
From elite young talents like Joshua Van and Tatsuro Taira to quality veterans like Brandon Moreno, Brandon Royval, Kara-France and Manel Kape, there are more great 125-pounders in the UFC than ever.
They’re all chasing the 35-year-old whose humility makes him stand out in a sport filled with good guys.
He gets it, though. He’s not complaining about being the co-main event, or who he’s fighting or what he’s making.
He’s grateful for the chance to be able to provide for his family and change not just his life, but theirs as well.
“Everybody wants to be the best. Every athlete wants to be considered the best at what they do. I try to put in the work every day in my gym so that I can get there,” Pantoja said.
“The opportunity to fight in the UFC, the opportunity to have this belt with me, it’s amazing. I still feel so grateful. I have the opportunity to go to T-Mobile Arena one more time with 20,000 other people in the arena and millions watching on TV. It’s an amazing opportunity.”
Only 19 UFC champions have been able to make four consecutive title defenses in one reign. Only 14 have made five in a row.
While Pantoja is walking on hallowed ground by gunning for his fourth defense, the path is far from easy. Kara-France is a familiar foe whom he defeated in 2016 on ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’
If he gets through Kara-France, he’ll likely face the winner of the Royval-Van fight which is on the undercard of UFC 317.
Royval has won five of his last six, with only a loss to Pantoja at UFC 296 keeping him from a five-fight winning streak.
He was supposed to fight Kape on this card, but when Kape was injured, the UFC offered him Van, a fast-rising young talent.
Royval’s reaction to that offer said everything about the perception of Van.
“When I offered Van to Royval, Brandon said to me, ‘Fuck yeah! He might be my favorite fighter in the division! That fight will be crazy because we’re two crazy people,’ ” said Hunter Campbell, the UFC’s chief business officer.
Whoever wins would set up an outstanding fight with Pantoja, assuming he gets past Kara-France.
But neither has the name like a Johnson, a Henry Cejudo or a Brandon Moreno, the champions who preceded him in the UFC.
He reigns over a division that is the best it’s ever been, but he’s chasing the ghost of Johnson, who made an absurd 11 consecutive successful defenses, a UFC record.
“Forget about getting there,” said Jon Anik, the UFC’s estimable play-by-play broadcaster, of 11 defenses. At two defenses a year, he’d need four more years on top to surpass Johnson, which seems unlikely.
Pantoja called out Johnson after his win over Kai Asakura at UFC 310 in December. Johnson, who is retired, declined, but offered to train with Pantoja.
Pantoja has proven he belongs alongside the greats. Legacy, though, isn’t simply about numbers. It’s about the night, the fight and delivering that performance that drops jaws and ends all doubts.
Saturday could be that night for Pantoja.
A win over Kara-France wouldn’t just keep the belt around his waist, it might finally put this driven and humble family man where he deserves to be: in the center of the conversation, with nothing left to prove and everything left to defend.
File photo.
Alexandre Pantoja once drove Uber Eats so he could remain hungry