Joshua Van Wants To Show Everyone How Great He Is

If it hasn’t been clear thus far, Van absolutely loves what he does.

The native of Myanmar has been in the UFC for less than three years, yet he already amassed a 9-1 record and rose to the top of one of the most talent-rich divisions in the promotion. He fought four times in 2024 and foreshadowed his breakout campaign in 2025 ahead of his final bout that year against Cody Durden, telling the late Thomas Gerbasi that if he won, “2025 is going to be the takeover.”

He beat Durden at UFC 310, and indeed, took over last year.

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An early win over Rei Tsuruya kept him moving forward, and a third-round stoppage of Bruno Silva earned him a place in the rankings. Two weeks later, he hustled back into the Octagon and outworked Brandon Royval down the stretch of a title eliminator bout that landed at the top of numerous Fight of the Year ballots, setting himself up for a championship clash with Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323 in Las Vegas at the end of the year.

Less than 30 seconds into the fight, Van tree-topped the champion, who tried to brace his fall and suffered a gruesome-looking elbow injury that instantly halted the fight. Van celebrated in the Octagon, but when made his way backstage at T-Mobile Arena for pictures and interviews, the newly minted champion was clearly conflicted, unsure how to react and respond in the midst of a dream moment that didn’t play out as he had envisioned.

“Man, it was a confused moment,” he said. “I celebrated, I was happy but then going back to the hotel — usually I’ll stay up until like four in the morning, watch my fight again and again, but this fight, I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want to celebrate the win for like two weeks after I won the belt, and my coaches were like, ‘You won. He’s a black belt, he should know how to fall and it’s not (your) fault he broke his arm.’ … After those two weeks, I came to learn that everything happens for a reason, so I was like, ‘Hey, if you want the belt, we can run it back.’ As of right now, I’m the champ, and if they want the belt, they can try and come take it from me.”

“They told me two weeks before they called it off, ‘We’re gonna call it off; things aren’t looking good’ and I was like, ‘I’m doing good’ and kept begging them,” Van said, still playfully annoyed that he had to wait another month before returning to action. “They did a little meeting without me, and next thing you know, they called it off… It was difficult, but I was going through some minor injuries, so the coaches saw something that I usually don’t go through in fight camp, and they wanted to push back the date. Now we’re perfectly fine.”

Having both spoken with and spent time with Van throughout 2025 before reconnecting in Houston earlier this year, there is a night-and-day shift in his level of comfort in front of the camera and in accepting the position that he’s in. At one point when we spoke last September, he demurred when I suggested that teammates like Alden Coria and Michael Aswell Jr. looked up to him, viewed him as a role model because he was the first of their group to reach the UFC and the success he had enjoyed.

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Now, he’s actively speaking about himself as a leader and role model, and has grown exceptionally comfortable in the position, whether it’s with his teammates, his nephew Vel, or the nation of Myanmar as a whole.

“Before being a champion, I didn’t think that I had achieved anything,” he said. “Now being a champion, my teammates look up to me even more. Now they all come to my strength and conditioning, my boxing, and that’s how we get better as a team.