Joe Rogan used Alexandre Pantoja’s dominant victory over Rizin champion Kai Asakura at UFC 310, to claim that the UFC stood head and shoulders above other MMA promotions. Rogan praised Pantoja’s performance against Asakura and argued that despite his reputation as a dangerous striker, he was overwhelmed in the fight, a testament to the UFC’s unmatched level of competition,
In an episode of the Joe Rogan podcast with Bert Sorin, he spoke about how the UFC was the cream of the crop and there have been multiple champions from other organizations who have not been able to replicate their success in the promotion.
“The level at the UFC, that’s the peak, those are the greatest fighters on the planet…We found out about that this past weekend. because Alexandre Pantoja….he fought this dude Kai Asakura from Japan who’s a f*cking assassin but Pantoja just ate him (Asakura) alive.”
Rogan is not wrong with his assessment.
Take former Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler for example. His fight with Eddie Alvarez in Bellator is part of MMA folklore.
When he entered the UFC, it was with such great hype. He won a couple of decent fights as well but soon found himself up against championship-level fighters.
He has now lost 4 out of his last 5 fights. And the one win came against Tony Ferguson, who was way past his prime and on a 4-fight losing streak.
This contrasts sharply with other promotions, where top fighters may not face the same level of consistently elite talent. Pantoja, at flyweight, has faced fighters like Brandon Moreno, Steve Erceg, Alex Perez, and Brandon Royval among others and he’s beaten them all.
He has been so elite as a champion that he now has to call out retired GOATs like Demetrious Johnson to provide him with a challenge.
Unfortunately, ‘Mighty Mouse’ has no intention of coming out of retirement, so Pantoja instead made a different request.
Pantoja wants to train with the GOAT
Responding to Pantoja’s call out, Johnson made it very clear right off the bat that he was happy making good money on YouTube and had no desire to drag himself to a camp to fight in the octagon one more time.
Disappointed, in an interview with Ariel Helwani, Pantoja then amended his callout to a request.
“I just need to train with him… that dream I have in my life, fight with the best fighters in the world. Demetrious Johnson, he is the best one….Maybe I’ll text him and we can train together.”
Now, this dream might not be as far-fetched as it seems, especially after Johnson was recently spotted training with some of the biggest names in MMA, including Khabib Nurmagomedov, Umar Nurmagomedov, and lightweight champion Islam Makhachev ahead of UFC 311.
Johnson has still been competing in jiu-jitsu competitions across the country and actively trains with MMA talents all the time. So Pantoja might just get this wish fulfilled.
