UFC 301 Preview
The UFC will be invading the Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for UFC 301 on Saturday May 4th. The main event will be for the flyweight title between Brazilian champion Alexandre Pantoja and #10 Steve Erceg.
Pantoja defended the belt for the first time in his last fight where he won by unanimous decision victory over Brandon Royval at UFC 296. The Brazilian has won five straight fights and is looking to make his home country proud against a surging contender.
Pantoja is ready to defend the belt once again. “This is my time,” said Pantoja. “I want to beat the best. That’s what I’m doing.”
The 34-year-old is fighting for more than just himself. “I fight for my family, and I fight to represent the entire division,” said Pantoja. “I want to support my division. Flyweights are so much better than people realize. This division deserves the main event.”
How does Pantoja see the fight going? “Kill or die, that’s how I’m approaching this fight,” said Pantoja. “He is good enough to beat me. He’s going to fight with his heart and soul. But I’m still hungry.”
Pantoja won the belt after a hard-fought battle with two-time champion Brandon Moreno at UFC 290. The MMA world saw the fight as his arrival as not only a skilled fighter, but one that can withstand a war inside the octagon.
The champion believes he still has something to prove. “Fighting makes me feel free,” said Pantoja. “I keep telling myself I’m not the champion. I need to go out there and earn it. This is my chance to prove I’m the best in the world.”
Aside from wins over Royval (twice) and Moreno (twice), Pantoja has key wins over Alex Perez, Manel Kape, Matt Schnell, and Wilson Reis. He will have his hands full with Erceg who is big for the flyweight division and has proven he has one-punch knockout power.
After just three fights in the UFC, Erceg will be fighting for a title. He proved to the division that he is one to be feared after a one-punch second round knockout over Matt Schnell in his last fight in March.
How does the Australian feel about getting a title shot so quickly? “I know I wasn’t at the top of everyone’s mind when it came to a title shot,” Ergec said. “But just the way the division was with Pantoja already beating all the challengers, people are injured and the only other guy up for the shot was (Muhammad) Mokaev, I was on the same card as him, and I had a more exciting fight than him, (so) UFC decided to give me the shot.
“I’m here to be the best guy in the world, so whether I’m an underdog or favorite, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m going in there to fight another dude in a cage, and whoever is best is going to come out on top.”
Does Erceg feel the pressure of traveling to Brazil to face the Brazilian champion? “Honestly, I believe there’s just as much pressure on me as there is on Pantoja,” Erceg said. “I know that, yeah, technically he’s the champ, and he’s the favorite and all that, but I’ve been working for this dream my whole life, and this is the culmination of all my hard work. To lose here would be devastating. I have all the pressure on my shoulders, and I’m confident in the work I’ve done over the years. I’ve worked very hard for a very long time.”
The co-main event will be in the bantamweight division between #12 Jonathan Martinez and Brazilian legend Jose Aldo.
Martinez is coming off an impressive TKO victory over Adrian Yanez in October. The win was his sixth straight and his arrival into the top 15. The 30-year-old made his UFC debut in 2018 and he has gone 10-3. The Los Angeles native had plenty to say about Aldo’s return to Brazil.
“They got him back because they needed someone on this card, so they called on him,” Martinez said. “He was already retired, doing boxing, and I just think they paid him more to get him on this card.
“Also, in every interview, he says he wants to box and wants to get on that Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson card. I think he thinks this fight is going to be easy because that’s like a month and a half away. I hope he’s not sleeping on me because something can happen.”
Despite what he thinks of Aldo, Martinez knows he is in for a battle on Saturday. “Getting a win over him will put me close to that top five, and that’s what I’m looking for,” Martinez said. “I know this is a tough fight, and I’m training hard for it, and I’m confident. I know I prepared well, and you guys will see on Saturday.”
Aldo is a UFC legend and the former UFC featherweight champion. He is one of the most dominant fighters of his era and he scored seven title defenses. At one point he went undefeated for nine years with 18 straight wins. He is a solidified hall-of-famer but he has business to settle in his home country at UFC 301.
The former champion talked about what is rumored to be his last fight in the UFC and potential retirement. “When we started talking to Dana, they wanted to give me a new deal, but I really wanted to have this fight, which is what I’m focused on right now, to see where I’m at, and then we can take it from there,” Aldo said. “When I stopped fighting, when I retired, I had a lot of offers, a lot of money, but it’s never been about that. So that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re going to see where I’m at,” said Aldo.
The legend is ready for his return to Brazil. “Rio is where I got my start,” Aldo said. “It’s where I live. It’s where I train. It’s where my friends are. So, obviously, very meaningful to be fighting here. But in the end, I want to get in there and do my best and show everyone what I’ve been doing… “When we started talking to the UFC about this, the possibility was doing a new contract, a new agreement. But what I really want to do right now is just show everyone where I’m at, how I’m doing, do this fight, and then we can sit down with the UFC and see how it’s gonna go.”
The rest of the main card:
Light Heavyweight - #11 Anthony Smith vs. #15 Vitor Petrino
Middleweight - Michel Pereira vs. Ihor Potieria
Middleweight - #13 Paul Craig vs. #14 Caio Borralho
ESPN+ PRELIMS:
Featherweight - Jack Shore vs. Joanderson Brito
Strawweight - Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Lasmin Lucindo
Lightweight - Elves Brener vs. Myktybek orolbai
Lightweight - Joaquim Silva vs. Drakkar Klose
ESPN+ and ESPN 2 Early Prelims:
Lightweight - Mauricio Ruffy vs. Jamie Mullarkey
Women’s Flyweight - Dione Barbosa vs. Ernesta Kareckaite
Lightweight - Ismail Bonfim vs. Vinc Pichel
Flyweight- Alessandro Costa vs. Kevin Borjas
