Las Vegas — Flyweight Joshua Van (12-2) notched his third win of 2024 on Saturday, earning a clear unanimous decision victory over ranked 125’er Cody Durden.
Van, who is now 3-1 this year with a loss to Charles Johnson over the summer, wants two things moving forward: following two straight wins, he wants a top 10 or even top 5 opponent. And he wants to carry his country’s flag into the octagon.
That last request might surprise fight fans. Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in 2022, the promotion briefly banned fighters from carrying flags out with them. That proved unpopular, and the promotion did an about-face as a result.
Yet somehow, Van, who was born in Myanmar, has not been allowed to represent his country. That apparently boils down to someone in the promotion needing to confirm that Myanmar is a recognized nation.
“It’s not the UFC. They have some member who has to approve it. I forgot what the name is, but they have to approve that Myanmar is a country. Myanmar is a country,” Van told media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.
For those who need a quick history/geography lesson, Myanmar, previously known as Burma, is a Southeast Asian nation that was formerly a British colony. It declared independence in January 1948, a decree that received royal assent in the U.K. in December of the previous year. The country was referred to as Burma, at least in English, until 1989, and has gone through multiple periods of unrest, and outright civil war.
The naming of the country gets a little more complex: in Burmese, both names can be used; the United Nations recognizes Myanmar, while the U.S. continues to use Burma, or in some cases, both names.
Even former U.S. President Barak Obama had to contend with the question of the country’s name when traveling on an official visit. The old name brings up unpleasant memories of past regimes for some, but modern times have seen the country’s military depose of its democratically elected State Counsellor (essentially Prime Minister) Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup. Kyi was later imprisoned, a sentence of 27 years for politically motivated charges handed down.
“I really want to carry my flag inside the octagon, so we’re just waiting for them to confirm it. We’ve been doing that, we’ve been trying to get my flag ever since I got to the UFC,” continued Van. “So hopefully by my next fight, I get to carry my own flag.”
Myanmar is no stranger to the MMA world. One of ONE Championship’s biggest home grown stars, former double-champ Aung La N Sang, hails from the country, and is known as “The Burmese Python.”
“Shoutout to my boy, my big brother Aung La. He’s been giving me a shoutout and everything, helping me out and stuff like that,” Van added on Saturday. “He’s a big name, I’m the new generation. A lot of young generation from Myanmar, they’re really interested in MMA now. So in the future years, you’ll see a bunch of, not just Asian but Myanmar fighters.”
Van also addressed the recent resurgence of the flyweight division, and he’s happy to see the weight class finally getting its due.
“Man it’s amazing that people recognize the flyweights now. Back then, it was dead. I show up to the flyweights, and all of a sudden now everybody wants to fight in the flyweights and stay active and stuff.”
Watch the full UFC 310 post-fight press conference with Joshua Van above.
