Joshua Van predicted his UFC 323 title success almost to the day in card signing photo

Joshua Van used to sign UFC cards for fans with the promise that he would grow to be champion ‘by 2026’, and he nearly made it occur.

His win over Alexandre Pantoja that ended the flyweight champion’s impressive reign was a controversial one. The Brazilian picked up a freak injury lower than 30 seconds into the fight leading to a direct stoppage, and him losing the belt.

However it did fulfill a promise he has been making to fans on rare signed items. During an appearance on the Ariel Helwani show, a photograph was shown of Van signing one card, and writing the caption ‘Champion by 2026’, which no matter how the fight finished, is the reality.

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Ariel Helwani reveals perfect prediction from Joshua Van for UFC 323

At just 24-years-old, Joshua Van is the second-youngest champion in UFC history. He’s behind only Jon Jones for the accolade, and no matter how he did it, Helwani noted that he used to sign cards declaring he can be champion by 2026.

His win implies that the prediction was correct, and he did it just by the buzzer as that was the ultimate pay-per-view of 2025 and just the second last event of the yr. “I manifested this thing,” Van said as an image of him with certainly one of those signed cards was shown on screen.

“My phone screen says ‘b—-, I’m a champion, December 6 2025, there’s a great deal of things like that. I actually got a custom pistol that said ‘World Champion December 6,’ nevertheless it probably won’t come out until next week since it takes time to customize.

“So I can’t wait to see that gun and every little thing, man, but yeah I wish to manifest things and see beforehand what’s going to occur… No one wants the fight to finish that way and I respect the guy a lot that I need to run it back.”