{"id":328826,"date":"2026-05-04T05:50:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=328826"},"modified":"2026-05-04T05:50:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T00:20:30","slug":"tatsuro-taira-names-who-hell-defend-belt-against-after-dethroning-joshua-van-at-ufc-328","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/tatsuro-taira-names-who-hell-defend-belt-against-after-dethroning-joshua-van-at-ufc-328\/","title":{"rendered":"Tatsuro Taira names who he’ll defend belt against after dethroning Joshua Van at UFC 328"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Follow us on Google Discover<\/span> <\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Tatsuro Taira is already waiting for his first UFC flyweight title defense. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The 18-1 Japanese fighter will face 125lb champion Joshua Van at UFC 328 on Saturday night. <\/p>\n

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With a win, Tatsuro Taira expects to be ordered to fight a \u2018legendary\u2019 flyweight later this yr.<\/p>\n

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Who leaves UFC 328 with the flyweight title? \ud83c\udfc6<\/h3>\n

Explain your Joshua Van vs. Tatsuro Taira prediction within the comments. \u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Joshua Van and Tatsuro Taira side-by-side comparison. Credit: Mike Roach\/Zuffa LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Tatsuro Taira expects Alexandre Pantoja after UFC 328<\/h2>\n

Alexandre Pantoja defended the flyweight title 4 times before an injury ended his reign. <\/p>\n

The Brazilian fan favorite dislocated his elbow within the opening moments of a title defense against Joshua Van at UFC 323 in December. <\/p>\n

Tatsuro Taira believes that the unsatisfying end to Pantoja\u2019s reign means he will probably be granted a right away 125lb title shot when he\u2019s able to return to the Octagon. <\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely wish to fight all of [the top contenders],\u201d the UFC 328 star told MMA Fighting<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat comes first could be going against Pantoja and beating him. But one other dream I’d say is to have an enormous fight in Japan, that\u2019s one other thing I\u2019m looking forward to. It\u2019s becoming an exciting division.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I\u2019m ready [for Pantoja]. Alexandre Pantoja, I met him a bunch of times. I believe he\u2019s an excellent champ. <\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely a legendary champ, but flyweight now, we now have a whole lot of guys who’re getting here at high speed with a whole lot of momentum. It is perhaps somewhat bit different now from when he fought all of the top-ranked guys, however it\u2019s a totally recent [group of ranked fighters] at flyweight.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m very excited to fight him someday soon, with me because the champ, and having that fight. <\/p>\n

\u201cI need to point out the momentum and the energy that the brand new generation has.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alexandre Pantoja is able to return<\/h2>\n

Joshua Van vs. Tatsuro Taira was originally scheduled to happen at UFC 327 in Miami on April 11. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the flyweight champion got injured, and the fight was moved back to UFC 328. <\/p>\n

In his latest injury update, Alexandre Pantoja revealed that he was offered the prospect to rematch Van at UFC 327, but turned it down because he wasn\u2019t sure he\u2019d be fully recovered by then. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe UFC asked me in regards to the fight, but when I can remember, it was the last days of January,\u201d Pantoja said on March 31. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn that point, two months ago, I said, \u2018No, perhaps I can fight in June. But, after one month, starting of March, I believe I\u2019m able to fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the blokes asked me, perhaps I\u2019m able to fight in Miami, but that\u2019s OK. I can enjoy watching the fight. I believe for that fight, it\u2019s the actual probability for Joshua Van to prove he\u2019s the champion of the world. That\u2019s the actual fight for the belt because with me, he didn\u2019t have a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Follow us on Google Discover Tatsuro Taira is already waiting for his first UFC flyweight title defense. The 18-1 Japanese fighter will face 125lb champion Joshua Van at UFC 328 on Saturday night. With a win, Tatsuro Taira expects to be ordered to fight a \u2018legendary\u2019 flyweight later this yr. Who leaves UFC 328 with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21048],"tags":[3932,6747,27460,5599,1094,3820,13834,13833,3928,3826],"class_list":["post-328826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mma","tag-belt","tag-defend","tag-dethroning","tag-hell","tag-joshua","tag-names","tag-taira","tag-tatsuro","tag-ufc","tag-van"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328826"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328829,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328826\/revisions\/328829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}