Rio de Janeiro – UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja tipped his cap to his opponent at UFC 301 following his victory over Steve Erceg on Saturday night.
“I think I literally won the first three rounds, the fourth round could have been his, fifth was mine. The guy was very tough. What we say, you know, this is a guy from Australia,” Pantoja told reporters including Cageside Press through a translator at his post-fight scrum.
“Very tough that people didn’t really know, and he came in there to die. He was prepared to die and I think this is what it’s all about when you fight for the championship.”
Pantoja (28-5) was on the receiving end of some nasty Erceg elbows that cut the champion open during the fight. The cut bled bad enough that Pantoja had trouble seeing out of his left eye.
“I always say that the only way someone’s going to kill me is when they allow people to go in there with guns,” Pantoja said with a smile.
“You’re not going to take me out. As long as I’m breathing I’m going to be fighting back. I did expect the fight to end sooner, but again the Australian guy is very tough.”
With many arguing that the fight was much closer than one of the scores led on there’s support for a possible rematch in the near future for Erceg.
“I really came out like Rocky Balboa tonight. I have to watch my words sometimes. Words carry a lot of weight, but I really want to see him against a top 5 guy in this division. I want to see how he works out,” he said.
“Right now I’m not thinking about that. I don’t want to think about the gym or fighting. I want to think about the beach. Maybe tomorrow that changes, but for now that’s it.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Alexandre Pantoja above.
