Joshua Van on BEATING Tatsuro Taira, Sean-Khamzat, Jon Jones' record | Daniel Cormier Check-In

0:00 What's up, guys?

0:00 Welcome to a brand new episode here at Daniel Cormier TV,

0:05 brought to you by Total Wireless, the official wireless provider of UFC.

0:08 They are in your corner with unlimited 5G data that will not slow you down.

0:13 Now, that is a total power move.

0:18 Daniel,

0:26 what's up, Josh?

0:28 Hey, what's up, man?

0:28 No.

0:29 How you doing, Don?

0:30 Hey, you got a little bit of a different glow to you right now.

0:33 I I see your face.

0:34 You You look like you got that championship glow on you.

0:37 Uh you know, just feeling great, man.

0:39 Fight week.

0:41 you know, we uh I remember talking to you when you first started

0:46 and I remember a fight a fighter uh meeting we did and you walked

0:50 in and you were so young and we're at the UFC Apex and we're

0:53 upstairs in that that conference room and you

0:55 started speaking about wrestling and you go,

0:58 I'm doing this thing and I haven't even started wrestling yet and now

1:01 we fast forward not many years uh ahead and you're a world champion.

1:05 Has this happened faster than you might have imagined?

1:09 Josh, I knew you always were confident,

1:11 but to be the world champ this quickly, are you are you a bit surprised?

1:16 Nah, man.

1:17 I I actually thought I was going to beat Jon Jones record and then uh yeah,

1:21 I took that loss uh back in 2024 or something.

1:25 Yeah.

1:26 And you know, that kind of hold me back,

1:28 but I'm you know, I'm okay being with, you know, the second youngest.

1:33 So, it's cool.

1:34 So, what So, what happened in the last fight?

1:36 What happened?

1:37 Why didn't you guys fight in Miami?

1:38 Somebody got hurt.

1:39 I don't know exactly who it was.

1:41 Did you get hurt?

1:41 What happened?

1:43 Yeah, it's uh it's a minor injury uh that, you know,

1:46 we had to go through uh in fight camp.

1:49 So, uh the coaches, you know, they wanted to call off uh sooner, a lot sooner.

1:55 But I keep telling them, hey man,

1:56 I I can fight through this, you know, let me just finish my camp.

2:00 And then they just decided without me.

2:03 All the coaches and my managers, you know,

2:05 and then they call me outside just tell me uh they call it off

2:11 sometimes.

2:12 Uh that's why they're that's why they're in that place though, right?

2:15 Because they're the people that are responsible

2:16 for the athlete because especially when you're your age,

2:19 you almost feel invincible and so you think you can just get through anything.

2:23 So that's why those guys are in that place.

2:25 When that's when that happened, right?

2:29 Yeah.

2:29 and the fight got delayed.

2:31 Did you think it would still be Tatsuro Tyro or did you kind of wonder

2:35 well what about uh Pantosia who obviously you

2:39 guys had the last fight and that happened.

2:40 Did you always did you know that it would

2:43 stay him or was there ever a thought that maybe

2:45 Pantosia would try to sneak back in there

2:47 to try to find himself back fighting for the title?

2:50 Nah, I think it's always Turo, you know, uh because uh like Pentosia,

2:56 man, he got to get in camp and stuff like that.

2:58 There's no way, you know what I mean,

3:00 he going to be ready in that time uh that timeline.

3:03 So I I always know even if they reschedu it, like it's always going to be tug.

3:09 So let's go back to that championship winning fight, right?

3:15 Yeah.

3:13 It happens in a way that is uh I can't speak for you,

3:20 but not the way that you would want it to happen, but I don't care.

3:24 You won the fight.

3:25 What was the immediate feeling?

3:26 I saw the joy, right?

3:27 Oh my god, I'm a world champion.

3:29 When it settled into your mind, like what was your feeling after becoming

3:33 the world champion after that injury happened?

3:37 Well, to be honest, it was a confused moment, right?

3:39 I was like, what what's going on?

3:42 And the ref stop it.

3:44 And I didn't know whether I win or not.

3:46 I thought it was going to be like uh uh what is it called?

3:49 A DQ or whatever.

3:50 Yeah.

3:50 Yeah.

3:51 No contest.

3:52 Contest.

3:53 And then I was like,[ __] it.

3:54 So, I celebrate and then I ca I came back down,

3:58 you know, I was on the cage and I came back down.

4:00 I look at the I look at the screen and I

4:02 saw his arm and I was like, "Oh." And then,

4:06 you know, we I told him, "I'm sorry." He said,

4:08 "I'm sorry." You know, we going to fight again and things like that.

4:11 So, uh, you know, he Hey, but let's say this.

4:15 Let's just be completely honest, right?

4:19 Yeah.

4:18 He's going back to the ground based off

4:20 an action that you call going back to the ground.

4:22 He didn't just fall, right?

4:24 If we're being completely honest, right?

4:25 He kicked.

4:26 He tried the head kick.

4:27 He caught the kick, went to drive him to the ground,

4:29 he posted, and his elbow came out.

4:31 It's not like he just fell down, right?

4:32 So, when everybody's like, "Oh, Pentosa got hurt." I get it.

4:36 He did.

4:36 It was unfortunate, but that was off of one of your actions

4:39 that caused him to go to the mat and and he and got hurt.

4:44 Yeah.

4:44 Uh yeah, he you know, when he landed that kick,

4:47 like I kind of like not just block it, but like push it, you know?

4:50 I think that kind of like force him to fall in

4:54 fall fall in that way.

4:55 And like I said, man, like when when we do jiu-jitsu, you know,

4:59 that's the first thing they taught us is not to fall like that, you know.

5:03 Yeah.

5:03 Don't pull him a black belt.

5:05 And I think he should know how to fall.

5:09 Hey Josh, I'm a professional faller after all the wrestling.

5:12 Like I know how to fall in so many situations.

5:15 It's crazy.

5:17 I know man.

5:17 Uh it's crazy.

5:19 Yeah.

5:20 So then you get the call if Satsurro Tyra, tough guy,

5:25 beats Brandon Moreno last time in the way

5:27 that he did on the same fight night, right?

5:30 Did you know like I think it'll be this guy next?

5:33 And when you look at Tyra, like what do you see, right?

5:36 What do you make of Tatsuro Tyra uh the fighter?

5:41 Uh Turo, uh like Turo is a great fighter, you know what I mean?

5:46 He's a well-rounded guy and uh he is a lot of people know him

5:50 for his his ground game but you know he got a little bit of uh striking too.

5:54 So you know he's a well-rounded guy

5:56 and he's like another Pintoia but younger you

5:59 know so that like I really want to uh test myself against someone like Turo.

6:05 I think that would show the world that I'm the best in this flyweight.

6:10 And you got to make it.

6:11 Is it safe to say, Josh,

6:13 that if this fight is contested on the feet, you're winning completely.

6:19 But it gets tougher.

6:21 I'm not saying he beats you,

6:22 but it gets tougher if you're spending extended periods of time on the ground.

6:26 So, you want to make this a boxing type

6:28 of contest because your boxing is as good as anyone.

6:31 I told you what Andre Ward told me after watching you fight down in Houston.

6:35 That's crazy.

6:35 Big compliment.

6:37 Yeah.

6:37 Uh, I mean, stand up ground, you know,

6:40 we we we are well prepared for everything, you know what I mean?

6:44 Like, not a lot of people see my ground game,

6:46 so this might be my my time to show my ground game, you know?

6:50 Uh, what, five years of training on my ground.

6:53 Come on.

6:54 Well, it's not even It's not that people don't get to see your ground game,

6:57 it's because nobody can take you down, which to me is actually surprising.

7:00 You said you said, "I never wrestled until I started fighting." Yeah.

7:05 Never.

7:05 I mean, until right before I got to the UFC, basically like Yeah.

7:11 Yeah.

7:12 Yeah.

7:12 Crazy how good you got at defending takedowns.

7:15 Um, this week you are the co-main event to one of the most bad blood intense

7:23 type of situations uh that we have seen come across the UFC in a long time.

7:28 How's that feeling, the the fight week vibe as you've gotten to New

7:32 Jersey knowing that you are on one of the bigger cards of the year?

7:36 I I feel the same to be honest.

7:38 Uh you know, a lot of people talking about oscilly and all this other stuff,

7:42 but I feel safe, man.

7:44 I got my team.

7:45 Yeah, I got my team with me.

7:47 You know what I mean?

7:48 So, uh I don't feel like I just feel the same, bro.

7:53 I don't know.

7:53 What you going where the safety issue going to be

7:55 is whenever you and Tatsuro are in the middle

7:57 of Shawn and Hamzach because I think those guys

8:00 got to be on the edge of the press conference.

8:02 And if them dudes get at each other, it's going to be crazy up there.

8:05 I hope you got your bouncer uh shirt with you

8:07 to try to stop somebody from fighting up there, man.

8:10 Man, I Yeah, I don't know if if that ever happened

8:14 and I take my phone out and start recording, you know.

8:17 World star world star

8:24 Josh.

8:24 How much has life changed though as you now the UFC world champion?

8:29 Uh life is great man.

8:30 Is you know uh taking care of my family and things like that is is a lot better.

8:35 But uh in general man life still the same you know

8:39 still keeping the same uh people around me and things like that.

8:42 So, uh, pretty much the same.

8:46 You know, one of the greatest boxing champions of all time said,

8:49 uh, it's tough to to get up and run five miles.

8:51 Marvin Haggler, if he's when he's sleeping on satin sheets.

8:55 So, that's why champions fail.

8:57 I feel like this new era of champion now can stay motivated,

9:01 can know that the uh the goal,

9:04 while it is accomplished, they continue to move the the finish line back.

9:07 I I felt like every time I defended a title, Josh,

9:11 I would get home on Monday, I would mow my yard, I would feel great, right?

9:14 Like I'd accomplish something.

9:16 But on Tuesday, Wednesday,

9:17 my mind started shifting right back to the next thing.

9:20 So there was never any real like settling in terms of my career.

9:25 How do you do that?

9:26 Right.

9:26 As you became the champion, how quickly did you move forward to what's next?

9:31 Or were you able to live in that accomplishment a little bit?

9:35 Uh well like be being a champion right at the top is like

9:39 now that I know everybody trying to you know take that away from me.

9:43 So I work even harder man.

9:45 Uh you know uh even the coaches you know they push me a little harder and waking

9:51 up early in the morning to to go put put in work is never hard for me.

9:56 You know what I mean?

9:57 That that's and if I don't do that I get bored anyway.

10:00 So you know what I mean?

10:01 Uh it's good for me.

10:03 You know, I don't think that I don't think

10:04 that I could be a champion at your age.

10:07 Money and all that.

10:08 I would have been just too wild, man.

10:10 How you how you not just a wild boy out there in Texas, dog?

10:13 How How are you not just whing out T?

10:16 YOU'RE THE MAN, RIGHT?

10:17 YOU'RE THE MAN RIGHT NOW.

10:18 You like one of those You like the basketball

10:20 dudes down in Texas because you're a world champion.

10:23 How you stand you staying grounded?

10:24 You got a girlfriend OR SOMEBODY THAT KEEP YOU ON TRACK, BOY?

10:28 NAH, it's the coaches.

10:29 The coaches, my mom.

10:32 Crazy.

10:32 If I was your age or world champ with no girlfriend,

10:35 the world would be in trouble for me.

10:36 Boy, I tell you that.

10:37 Uh Josh, I had a conversation before I let you go.

10:44 What does Saturday night look like to you?

10:47 What's your expectation?

10:48 And as people would say, you're not the champ until you defend the champ.

10:56 Do you agree with that?

10:57 And also, uh what do you think Saturday night feels like for you?

11:02 Saturday, you know, uh the world will see, you know,

11:06 um that I am the best in this division, you know what I mean?

11:09 So, uh come fight day, I expect him to bring his agame and I'll bring my agame

11:14 and we going to find out who's the better man that night.

11:17 And and do you agree with that?

11:18 You're not the champ until you defend the bell.

11:21 No, I am the champ.

11:22 And hey, Ric Flair said that.

11:23 Everybody, everybody taking some[ __] Ric Flair

11:25 said and making it like a true thing whenever they just decided in the back

11:29 room that Ric Flair would be the champion.

11:31 He have to win.

11:32 They just told, "Okay, Rick, you get the belt today.

11:34 You get to defend it." Okay.

11:36 I had a conversation the other day with these guys on my team.

11:41 And one of the guys on the Ultimate Fighter I'm coaching

11:44 right now is from a very small country and he goes,

11:46 "The United States have 300 million billion people.

11:50 My country has seven.

11:52 We all have the same amount of world champions.

11:54 You only have Justin Gachi.

11:56 We only have so and so.

11:58 I said, but we have Joshua Van.

12:00 No, he said only.

12:02 I said, no, Joshua Van is of Myamar descent.

12:05 He's an American champion.

12:07 Can we claim you as an American champion, Joshua Van?

12:10 Yeah, for sure.

12:11 I'm a Burmese American.

12:13 You know what I mean?

12:13 Burmese.

12:14 Sorry.

12:14 Burmese America that for me.

12:19 I cannot wait to show it to the guy.

12:20 Guys, the champ Josh Van takes on Tery this weekend at UFC 328.

12:26 Watch this young man.

12:27 He is tremendous as well as he is electric on camera.

12:31 Until next time, guys.

12:32 Peace.

12:33 Good luck, champ.

12:33 Thank you for checking in.