Alexandre
Pantoja does not lack much in terms of career accomplishment,
but an
Ultimate Fighting Championship title undoubtedly tops his wish
list.
The well-versed and well-traveled Brazilian has compiled a 9-3
record since he linked arms with the organization as one of the
sport’s best unsigned talents in 2017. Pantoja currently finds
himself on a three-fight winning streak, with all signs pointed
towards upward movement in the flyweight division. He last competed
at UFC 277, where he submitted
Alex Perez
with a neck crank 91 seconds into the first round of their July 30
pairing.
As Pantoja awaits word on his next assignment from UFC matchmakers,
here are five things you might not know about him:
1. His was a success story from the start.
Pantoja made his debut as a professional mixed martial artist at
the age of 17 on July 21, 2007, when he submitted Antonio Carlos
with an armbar at a Vila Fight show in Rio de Janeiro. It was the
first of his 10 first-round finishes. Pantoja went 7-1 in eight
appearances as a teenager, a split decision defeat to
Willian
Viana in September 2008 his only misstep.
2. The skills produce tangible results.
“The Cannibal” laid claim to the
Resurrection Fighting Alliance flyweight championship in the
RFA 18 main event, where he throttled
Matt
Manzanares unconscious with a rear-naked choke in the second
round of their Sept. 12, 2014 pairing. Pantoja made one more
appearance on the regional circuit, reached the semifinals on
Season 24 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series and made the
expected jump to the UFC.
3. No one has broken him.
Pantoja has never been finished in his 30-fight career, as his
losses to Viana,
Jussier
Formiga,
Dustin
Ortiz,
Deiveson
Figueiredo and
Askar
Askarov—five men with a combined record of 96-28-2—all went to
the scorecards. Only Figueiredo has managed to knock him down
inside the Octagon.
4. He believes in the iron-sharpens-iron approach.
The 32-year-old Rio de Janeiro native operates out of the
world-renowned
American Top Team camp in Coconut Creek, Florida. There,
Pantoja has access to top-shelf coaches like
Mike
Thomas Brown,
Marcos da
Matta and Marcus “Conan” Silveira, along with a horde of
accomplished lighter-weight stablemates, from
John
Lineker and
Kyoji
Horiguchi to
Dustin
Poirier,
Natan
Schulte and
Adriano
Moraes.
5. Some might call him a globetrotter.
Pantoja has fought in eight different countries as a mixed martial
artist: Brazil, the United States, Scotland, Chile, Argentina,
Canada, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.