After racking up win after win, including a dominant performance at UFC 313 where he secured a unanimous decision victory over Rei Tsuruya, ‘The Fearless’ Joshua Van remains unranked in the flyweight division. Safe to say he’s not happy about it.
UFC rankings have been a point of argument amongst members of the community, fans, analysts, and even CEO Dana White. The bossman has been so frustrated with the rankings that he’s claimed to have been working with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to introduce AI rankings in the UFC.
Unfortunately for Van, it can’t come soon enough. In an interview with Inside Fighting, Van called the incumbent system a joke and said, The rankings are kind of like b*llsh*t. Unless you’re in the top 5 or below top 10, I think it’s b*llsh*t
“I just take whatever they give me,” he added, still clearly annoyed by the lack of recognition.
It’s understandable why Van feels this way. After all, Kai Asakura, who just made his way from Rizin Fighting Federation and is now 0-1 in the UFC after an unremarkable debut, is ranked higher than Van, who has already fought 7 times in the organization and is 6-1.
It should be noted that the UFC doesn’t actually rank its own fighters. The rankings you see on the promotion’s official website are the result of a panel of media members voting on who goes where.
So, despite the extremely valid frustrations he has, Van doesn’t have much in the way of a choice in this matter.
So the Myanmar native is willing to do whatever it takes to make his name in the division. Despite having just fought on the UFC 313 card on March 8, he is already looking to get back in the octagon.
Van’s Pereira-esque fight plans
Former light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira technically fought almost every four months on average last year. Three title defenses, two of them on short notice against former champions, even won him the Combat Press 2024 Male Fighter of the Year and the 16th annual World MMA Awards for Fighter of the Year.
But did you know Van actually fought more than Pereira in 2024? He stayed incredibly active, showing up to the octagon 4 times in the span of 12 months. Now, he is looking to repeat the feat this year as well and go beyond even if possible.
| Joshua Van tells @arielhelwani that he’d like to return next month following his #UFC313 victory over Rei Tsuruya.
Van has fought 7 times since his UFC debut in June 2023, winning six of those contests. pic.twitter.com/mqGN3a5Gun
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) March 12, 2025
The reason? He just doesn’t like the idea of having to switch on and off between fights. Besides, since he did not pick up any major injuries or sustain too much damage from his last fight, he feels there is no reason to waste the perfectly good camp he had for UFC 313.
“When you take some time off, and you come back to the gym, like your body, you have to adjust to some things and stuff like that. So I don’t really like taking too much time off.”, he explained.
Hopefully, he can make it to the top 15 in the flyweight division and compete with top talents like he hopes to one day.
