Athletes
As we got on the phone on Monday, Joshua Van asked how I was doing.
I wasn’t the one who had to make weight in four days after a short training camp and then get into a fistfight on Saturday, so I was doing okay. Remarkably, so was Van.
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“Let's get it, man,” he said. “Fighting makes me happy.”
A lot of people say that, but this 22-year-old Texan means it. As proof, consider that when he got the call from manager Jason House to replace Kevin Borjas on less than two weeks’ notice against Edgar Chairez, he wasn’t in the gym preparing for his next bout. He was at a local watering hole enjoying a summer night out.
“When Jason called me, I said, ‘I can't say no,’” recalled Van, who cut his night short to start getting ready for UFC 306.
“I was like, I got to go,” said Van, who was looking to take a little break after getting stopped by Charles Johnson in July. It was just the second loss of Van’s career, and the first of a UFC run that started out with a trio of wins over Zhalgas Zhumagulov, Borjas, and Felipe Bunes. But now it was back to work.
“Short notice is always hard, but we managed to get what I need,” he said. “The work, once you push yourself so much, your body kind of gets used to it. So the first two days, it was hard, but after that it was like a normal day.”
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In other words, Van is ready to throw down with a Mexican fighter on the Riyad Season Noche UFC card on Mexican Independence Day. As for being the “bad guy” on Saturday night, Van doesn’t believe that will be the case.
“I'm Mexican myself,” laughs the Myanmar native. “I got here when I was 12 and I'm about to be 23, so I've been with Mexicans for almost half my life and they see me as a Mexican, too. So I don't see myself as the bad guy.”
Well, Mexico won’t be on Van’s birth certificate, but the Daniel Pineda-coached flyweight does have that Mexican fighting spirit in him, and he knows it.
“I come from the street,” he said. “And growing up with Mexicans, it put me in that same mentality that they got. And shout out to my coaches, who ain't nothing but Mexican. So I adapt to their style very quick and I like the aggressiveness that they got going on. I like their pressure and all that, so I just put that to my style, man.”
Sounds like there may be a few cheers for Van in the Sphere, which has gotten plenty of attention in its own right for hosting its first fight card this weekend. And while guys like Van don’t care where they fight, he does admit that it’s going to be cool to be a part of history.
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“A fight is a fight. At the end of the day, one guy's going to lose, one guy's going to win. So, it don't really matter where I fight, but fighting in the Sphere is crazy. I don't think that will be any different for me, though.”
It won’t. Joshua Van is a fighter, and fighting is what matters to him. Doesn’t matter where, when or who. Just give him a contract, a date and a location.
“Yeah, just line them up and I'll fight them,” he said. “As long as I get to fight, as long as I make money, that's all that matters. I do want to get a ranked guy and hopefully they'll give me one after this, but if not, line them up.”
UFC 306: O'Malley vs Dvalishvili took place live from Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 14, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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