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.
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