UFC 331 Preview Show | Can Alexandre Pantoja Get Revenge On Joshua Van?

Jed Meshew (0:14)

Mixed Martial Arts, Mixed Martial Arts, UFC 331, Flaa-Way Champion!

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. That is right. I am Jed Meshew of mmafighting.com. You probably already know that. And this is the UFC 331 Preview Show. Josh Van, Alexandre Pantoja. They do it again. And this time, hopefully, there will be no tomfoolery, no shenanigans, no dislocated elbows unless they come from an arm bar. We want rock solid, no doubt about it, flyweight champion. And hopefully, that is what we will get from scenic crypto.com arena in Los Angeles, California. And of course, you know, not as a co-main event, but a five round co-main event with Arman Tsarukyan, taking on Mauricio Ruffy, ten other fights on this card. We're going to get to the whole shebang. At the end, we'll do questions as we always do. So you can ask about RAF, anything else you want. But when I say we, I got to introduce my co-host for this. We have become the dream team. I know that you have a best friend and it's not me, but I got to tell you, I think we do quite okay on these previews and post shows as it's become the standard, especially with the wonderful Mike Hecht on location for RAF 14, whatever number this is, I'm not quite sure. But I'm speaking, of course, the King of the North, the Prince of Positivity, the best gosh darn guy in MMA right now. And maybe in MMA ever.

Alexander K. Lee, AK.

How are you doing, buddy?

Alexander K. Lee (1:51)

Hey, Jed. Hey, Jed. Yeah, we would do all the preview shows every week. We even did an on to the next one. And we were all, and that was crazy. We were crazy in sync. I was, I messaged Jed recently. I said, we're spending too much time together. That's true. We had a frightening moment earlier this week where I was literally about to message him something about his gambling show, No Bets Bared. Would you have listened to it yet? Please check that out before you watch UFC 331

And I was like, just about to ask him about it. And then literally before I did, he sent me some message regarding my question. And I was like, this is, I don't know how I feel about this. He's in my head. He's in my head.

Jed Meshew (2:29)

You know what?

Alexander K. Lee (2:29)

He's in my head.

Jed Meshew (2:30)

He's in my head.

Alexander K. Lee (2:30)

Yeah, he's in my head. Just like Joshua Van, I feel like has been in Alexandria Pantoja's head for the past like nine months. Because if you're Pantoja, you had a very unsatisfying title fight loss. I mean, 26 seconds just in freak injury. All credit to Joshua Van, whatever. I think Jed, you do have Joshua Van ranked as your number one flyweight, correct?

Jed Meshew (2:52)

I believe I put him there because-

Alexander K. Lee (2:53)

I think you did immediately, right?

Jed Meshew (2:54)

Yeah.

I've been saying this since it happened and it is my genuine belief. It's an honest win. It doesn't mean we have to treat it as that he beat Pantoja up, but the rules of engagement, this is not like a- it is a fluke, right? If they fought 100 times, that probably wouldn't be the way it went every time, right?

Alexander K. Lee (3:20)

Let's hope, Jed. Let's hope.

Jed Meshew (3:22)

Let's hope. Knock on wood, throw salt over the shoulder, all those things. It's a fluke, but it's a valid fluke. This is not like something, oh, he cheated in one and the ref missed it. It's not like this is- that's a real result. The rules are the rules and per the rules, he won.

If there had been no referee there, Pantoja couldn't have fought him with one arm and he would have got the crap kicked out of him, you know? So you got to treat it as an honest win in my book. We don't have to make more of it than it is.

But so as soon as he got it, it's an honest win. I put him as the number one guy in the world because of it.

Alexander K. Lee (3:55)

Yeah. And then he defends it. That helped me so much. I mean, I think still, I think you're the only one on the panel. I was a little surprised that Joshua Van's win over Tyra didn't turn anyone else. So I will say we have not...

Jed Meshew (4:06)

That's a little surprising, honestly.

Alexander K. Lee (4:08)

We have not updated the rankings since that win. So I would have to take like an informal poll. I think, I can't remember if I said that I was going to change it.