Joshua Van: 'I don't give respect to nobody inside that cage'

Joshua Van's rise to the top of the UFC flyweight division was head-spinning fast. He entered his UFC 316 bout against Bruno Gustavo da Silva on June 7 as an unranked fighter. He stopped Silva via punches in the third round and debuted in the rankings at No. 12. He then received the opportunity of a lifetime. 

Two days after his win over Silva, top contender at the time, Brandon Royval, lost his UFC 317 opponent due to injury. Royval was scheduled to face former RIZIN bantamweight champion Manel Kape but Kape was forced out of the fight with a broken foot. In stepped Van. 

"The Fearless" defeated Royval and assumed the top contender slot in the 125-pound rankings. He's expected to take on champion Alexandre Pantoja later this year and he doesn't plan on showing the titleholder any respect in the cage. 

"He's a great champion but he ain't never fought Joshua Van. There's no one. like me, The fighting style that I bring. The no respect," Van said on The Ariel Helwani Show. "I don't give respect to nobody in that cage.

"I respect him and a man. I respect what he's done in our division, but when we fight there's no respect at all."  

Van has won five fights in the last ten months. Last year, the 23 year-old wrote down that he'd be champion by the end of 2025. He'll have the opportunity to make that prediction a reality when he faces Pantoja. 

"I think I said this in an interview one time, I always thought I'd be the champion by the end of this year. I wrote it down on the paper and I prayed to manifest it," Van said. 

"I'm not surprised because we put in the work and I believe in my team. The team believes in me, and I believe in my God. He always answers my prayers."