UFC 323’s Joshua Van gains support amid criticism for celebrating marred title win

Joshua Van has been under some scrutiny following UFC 323, but a retired fan favorite is coming to his defense.

Van shared the Octagon with Alexandre Pantoja for just 26 seconds this past Saturday. Van was challenging for the UFC Flyweight Championship. Early on, Pantoja injured his shoulder while trying to break his fall. The fight was called off and Van was awarded the win.

While the situation was out of Van’s control, some fans criticized the 24-year-old and his team for celebrating. During a new edition of MMAFighting.com‘s “The Fighter vs. The Writer,” Matt Brown said he understands the post-fight reaction from Van’s perspective.

“To be honest when it’s for a title like that, I don’t want to hate on Joshua Van for it,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Because here’s what the fact is — this dude has spent his whole life, a very short life of his, about half of mine — even if not his whole life for the last however many years, his entire life has been on getting to this single goal, which is an exceptionally high goal.

“This isn’t ‘I want to have a million dollar net worth by the time I’m 30’ or some shit. This is an insanely hard to reach goal and he got it. How he got it, does it really matter? They put a belt around his waist. This is what he dreamed about. This is what he visualized. This is what he put the work in for. So I can understand that side.”

As many coaches say in sports, “Never apologize for winning.” That’s the mantra that Van and his team have followed. While Van’s first title defense hasn’t been made official, many believe a showdown with Tatsuro Taira is in order. Taira also competed on the UFC 323 card and he scored a TKO finish over Brandon Moreno, which also drew some controversy.

During the UFC 323 press conference, Dana White said he liked the idea of Van vs. Taira in Japan. While it’s certainly an idea, there’s no word on whether or not it’ll be in UFC’s plans going into 2026.