Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Australia’s Steve Erceg is in enemy territory for UFC 301, where he challenges Alexandre Pantoja for the promotion’s flyweight championship in this Saturday’s main event.
Heading into Brazil can be a daunting task for any combat sports athlete, with Brazilian fight fans known for fierce loyalty to their fighters. That said, the experience to date hasn’t been all that bad for Erceg, a former Eternal MMA champ who is undefeated in the UFC thus far.
“It’s honestly been amazing. I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Erceg (12-1) told media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s UFC 301 media day. “Obviously there’s going to be big support for Pantoja so I thought maybe people would be not too receptive to me, but everybody’s been amazing.”
After playing volleyball and tennis with some of the locals in Rio, Erceg said simply that “it’s been a great experience so far.” Despite the warm reception, however, the flyweight title challenger knows he’ll be the bad guy come Fight Night.
He’s also well aware that he wasn’t exactly the first pick to challenge Pantoja for the flyweight title. But circumstances, as they often do in mixed martial arts, came into play.
“I know that I wasn’t on the top of everybody’s mind when it comes to a title shot, but just the way that the division was, Pantoja had already beat a lot of the challengers, people are injured, and the only other guy that really was in line for the shot was [Muhammad] Mokaev,” noted Erceg. “And I was on the same card as him, I had a more exciting fight than he did and the UFC decided to give me the shot.”
Come the fight, Erceg expects to be able to hold Pantoja at range and come at him from angles. “I know he’s a real tough guy, so at some point it’s going to get sloppy, it’s going to get scrappy. I came to prove that I’m not just a technical guy, I’m also a tough guy.”
Coincidentally, the fight that got Steve Erceg into MMA was Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir. Now, like Lesnar, he’s fast-tracked his way to a title shot after just three fights in the company. In comparison to Lesnar and Erceg, Jon Jones, the youngest champion in UFC history when he first won the light heavyweight title in 2011, had seven trips to the octagon under his belt before challenging for gold.
“Somebody brought that to my attention the other day. It’s funny how life works,” Erceg reflected. “I never set out to do things the way Brock Lesnar did it or anything like that. It’s just the way things sort of happened for me.”
“I’m excited to put my name in the history books as one of the fastest roads to the title, and put on a good reign.”
Erceg’s father, who doubles as his coach, was spot on with his prediction that a title shot would come within four fights for his son. But the younger Erceg doesn’t want his dad credited with any sort of clairvoyance, he joked.
“I don’t think you should tell my dad that he’s got some clairvoyance, it’ll go to his head,” he quipped. “We’ll just say confidence in the skills.”
Watch the full UFC 301 media day appearance by Steve Erceg above.
