UFC 301 is in the books, and the more things change, the more they stay the same. Alexandre Pantoja is still the UFC flyweight champion, Jose Aldo is still the GOAT, and Michel Pereira still rocks. So let’s talk about the fallout from the UFC’s latest trip to Brazil and where we go from here.

Alexandre Pantoja

Is Pantoja regressing/past his prime?

Leading off with this question because I want to answer the last part first.

On Saturday, Pantoja became only the second man in history to successfully defend the UFC flyweight title more than once (Deiveson Figueiredo had two title defenses, but one ended in a draw) when he took home a unanimous decision win over Steve Erceg. Canonically, that makes Pantoja the second greatest flyweight ever, and when No. 1 is Demetrious Johnson, well, you’re only ever striving for the silver medal anyway. That’s one (Mike) Heck of an accomplishment.

I’ll also note that the way he did it was impressive. Pantoja’s current winning streak has been largely defined by his elite grappling and almost reckless aggression. There was certainly some of the latter on Saturday, but actually he fought a more measured and responsible fight. There were still pockets where he ran headlong into Erceg’s best weapons, but when you have a chin like Pants does, that’s not the worst thing in the world. In the end, he worked through it and was able to score nine takedowns on a man who had only given up two prior to this fight, and is a damn fine grappler in his own right. It was championship stuff.

All that being said, I do think we’re probably at the end of Pantoja’s prime, if not already into the decline. He’s 34 years old, which on the crispy side of cooked for the lighter-weight divisions, and while this is undeniably the most impressive stretch of his career, he does seem to have plateaued. He’s doing a lot of the same stuff in every fight and it’s working because of his rare doggedness and durability, but in the not-too-distant future someone is going to stymie his grappling and then Pantoja’s disregard for defense in the striking phase is going to burn him. (Mike) Heck, it almost did on Saturday, but more on that in a moment.

And there are other things to talk about first, but I’ll circle back to the rest of this question down below.

Vincenzo Erceg

Where do you rank Erceg at Flyweight after tonight? He put up a much better fight than [Brandon] Royval

Pretty highly! We have a rankings update coming out this week and I’ll be interested to see how the rest of my colleagues feel about the man we’ve affectionately dubbed “Vinnie Cigs,” but I’ve got him as a top-five flyweight.