Undefeated flyweight prospect Rei Tsuruya looked to maintain his perfect record at UFC 313 on Saturday, where he was paired up with Myanmar’s Joshua Van. The Japanese wrestling sensation entered the UFC by winning last year’s season of Road to the UFC.
As for Van, the always entertaining fighter entered the fight off back-to-back unanimous decision wins over Edgar Chairez and Cody Durden.
In a fun piece of potential future trivia, this fight represented the very first case of two fighters born in the 21st century facing off under the UFC banner. Entering the contest, Tsuruya and Van were the third and eighth youngest fighters in the promotion respectively.
Van currently holds the highest significant strikes rate in the UFC at over 9 per minute and he landed a body jab right as the opening round started. Tsuruya wasted no time to get his wrestling going, shooting twice in a row, but both attempts were stuffed by Van. They clinched and both landed knees to the body. Tsuruya faked a level-change that drew a reaction out of Van and then fired a left straight that got home. As Van was pressuring, he landed two nice left hands. A slip-counter by Van forced an instinctive shot by Tsuruya that Van defended well. They clinched again for a short while, but eventually broke it off. Van used his pattented pressure once again and caught the Japanese fighter with a clean right. Tsuruya finally got a takedown in the final minute, but Van wasted no time to get back up to his feet. Another slip-counter right hand from Van pushed Tsuruya to the fence. Van then fired a head kick that Tsuruya caight and used to get the fight to the ground, but Van once again got back up. A clear 10-9 for Van in the opener.
The second round started with Van stuffing some more takedowns in the first minute. Tsuruya got a takedown on his fourth attempt of the round with a beautiful arm throw. Following the throw, he landed in side control with his left arm around Van’s neck, but Van exploded to get back his feet. The Japanese looked lost on the feet, his striking arsenal consisted of a left straight and not much else. Van took advantage of these striking exchanges, forcing Tsuruya on the backfoot and outlanding him. He used his cage-cutting skills to punish Tsuruy’a telegraphed movements with intercepting strikes. Van timed a nice knee, that Tsuruya answered with a spinning elbow. Another clear 10-9 for Van.
Round 3 started exactly like the first two, as Tsuruya kept shooting takedowns but Van kept stuffing them. As Van’s confidence in his takedown defence was clearly growing, he started to find offense while stuffing the shots. He even countered a takedown attempt with a nasty elbow on the break. There was a stop to the action after a kick from Van glanced Tsuruya’s cup. Tsuruya took a minute to recover and then immediately shot a takedown when they went back to it. Van’s textbook defence allowed him to land clean body shots with he was diving on his legs. Van landed a nice one-two from the southpaw stance from Van as Tsuruya was retreating. The fighter from Japan replied with a desperate-looking spinning back-fist that missed the mark. Another kick that initially appeared to glance Tsuruya’s cup forced another stop to the action, but the replay showed that Van’s toes clearly dug to the body. As the action immediately restarted, Van opted to finish the round even stronger than he started and partially dropped Tsuruya in the final seconds. This was Van’s best round of the fight.
This was one of Van’s finest performances so far in the UFC. Showing stellar takedown defence against a credentialed wrestler in Tsuruya. It’s a win that should age very well as the 22-year old Japanese fighter should learn a great deal from this. These two highly-touted flyweights could rematch later in their careers.
Official Result: Joshua Van def. Rei Tsuruya by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
