Champion Alexandre Pantoja maintains challenger's mentality ahead of UFC 317

Alexandre Pantoja is the reigning, defending, undisputed UFC flyweight champion of the world, but he approaches each fight as if he’s still the hungry challenger that stepped into the Octagon to face Brandon Moreno for the title two years ago during International Fight Week.

It’s an approach and mindset forged by his longtime head coach, Marcos DaMatta, known throughout the sport simply as “Parrumpa,” who pulled apart one of the longstanding, accepted truths of combat sports in order to find a way to try and help his charge remain on top for as long as possible.

“You see when a fighter is fighting for the title for the first time, they put their lives on it,” DaMatta told Sportsnet, explaining the genesis of his “challenger’s mentality” approach with Pantoja, who defends his title against Kai Kara-France in Saturday’s UFC 317 co-main event in Las Vegas. “Sometimes the champion is maybe already established as champion, and they tend to be a little more relaxed, a little more willing to say, ‘Whatever, maybe I’m not gonna train today; I’ll train twice tomorrow,’ and then tomorrow comes, and it’s ‘maybe just once.’

“I don’t want ever for Pantoja to do that,” added the diminutive, but dogged coach. “What I really want is for him to approach every single fight until he retires as the challenger he was against Moreno.”

Asking a fighter to not only tap into that hunger, but manufacture and cultivate it when they’ve already reached the top of the mountain is big ask, since the quest to claim championship gold is always held out as the milestone an athlete is told to focus on and getting there is supposed to come with spoils.

But as DaMatta said — and Marvin Hagler famously stated years ago — “It’s tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 a.m. when you’ve been sleeping in silk pyjamas.”

And the champion remains all the way on board with his coach’s approach.

“I think this showed me how to be the best,” said Pantoja, who turned in his most dominant title defence to date in December, submitting Japanese standout Kai Asakura in the second round at UFC 310 in the same building where he competes this weekend. “I’m trying to follow something you never can get.

“A perfect fighter can never exist. I need to try to get that position every day. I go to the gym, (do) my best every day, and the day after that, I need to prove again one more time.

“I don’t know if you’ve watched the movie Whiplash, but I like that movie, it talks to me, because I’m the drummer and ‘Parrumpa’ is the maestro,” he said of the Damien Chazzelle film starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons in the combative lead roles. “It’s never enough, but he knows how to push you to your best place, so it’s amazing to have this guy by my side, learning from him.”

While that’s not the conclusion most that watch Simmons’ merciless, tyrannical band leader verbally and psychologically torture Teller’s initially naive and hopeful would-be musician come to, there is no denying that DaMatta’s tough love approach has been working for Pantoja.

The two have been working together since early 2018, meeting for the first time at UFC 220, where the standout dropped a unanimous decision to Dustin Ortiz. Even with the loss, his record still stood at 18-3 overall, but he recognized he needed something, or someone, to help him transform his undeniable talent into the stuff of champions.

A mutual friend reached out to DaMatta, asking the Rio de Janeiro native to take Pantoja under his wing. He agreed and the pair from Rio began working together at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Fla.

Pantoja, 35, has gone 11-2 since, and enters UFC 317 on a seven-fight winning streak, with his most recent outing being his best yet.

“Within 10 months, he fought 15 rounds,” DaMatta said of his pupil, laying out the timeframe for his first three title fights, which took place in July 2023, December 2023, and May 2024. “(After he defeated Steve Erceg at UFC 301 in his native Brazil), I told him, ‘If you want me to keep training you, you’re not gonna fight until the end of the year.’”

Though he’s very much a bulldog as a coach, DaMatta is also deeply caring and attentive to his athletes, and recognizes that the humble workhorse had been doing too much, and therefore affording his opponents an advantage when they stepped into the Octagon.

“Pantoja fought 15 rounds and the (Erceg) fight he fought at 60, maybe 70 per cent of his potential, because he couldn’t rest between camps, so he was giving people an advantage by not being 100 per cent,” added the highly respected coach. “I told him, ‘This is gonna stop!’ I want him to dominate until he retires, so he’s gonna take some time off.

"I (told the UFC), ‘He’s gonna fight at the end of the year, and I promise you guys, you can bring whoever, and he’s gonna finish whoever you bring; I don’t care.’ They brought Asakura, and you guys saw what happened, because he was healthy, he was in shape, he was rested.”

The debuting challenger – a vaunted striker with several impressive stoppage wins over established, game competition – was viewed as a dangerous threat to the incumbent but Pantoja tore through him. He fought with controlled aggression, leaning on his advantage on the canvas to neutralize Asakura’s weapons and ultimately put him to sleep with a rear-naked choke just over two minutes into the second round.

After three consecutive decisions and 75 minutes of fighting, the rested champion was back to being his dangerous, attacking self.

“It was amazing. I felt like Anderson Silva,” said Pantoja, reflecting on his main event win at UFC 310 seven months ago. “I think about that. I wonder ‘Why is Anderson Silva so big?’ and it’s because in the exact moment everybody watches the TV, the main event, the big star, he finishes with an amazing thing.

“That helped me for that performance, to have that mentality, and I finished the fight like I like to do. I like to be aggressive, I like to finish my fights. My last three fights were all decisions, and I had the opportunity to finish that one, and prove to everybody I’m a true champion.

“It was a great opportunity to climb the pound-for-pound rankings. I think everybody is trying to be the best fighter in the world, and that’s what I’m trying to be too.”

That pursuit dovetails nicely with DaMatta’s approach, which the pair broke down on the latest edition of the UFC Countdown series, with Pantoja summing up the way they seek to remain on top by noting that his coach “(never) once says I’m the best in the world.”

He is, without question, but since they view the title as being vacated and up for grabs the instant his next fight is officially signed, the mission is to prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt with each successive appearance inside the Octagon.

And to do that, there is no room for resting on laurels.

“This is the most important fight of his life, as Asakura was the most important fight back in December, as Erceg was in May,” DaMatta said with a smirk. "You’re only as good as your last fight and your next fight is the most important. It doesn’t matter if Asakura is better than Kai or if Moreno or (Brandon) Royval or Erceg are better than Kai. Kai is the guy that wants to take what we have, and it’s not gonna happen.”

Saturday’s championship co-main event has all the makings of a classic “trap game,” a term for a matchup where the heavily favoured side can get caught thinking about what’s ahead of them rather than properly dealing with the matter at hand first.

The two men crossed paths nearly a decade ago when they were both contestants on The Ultimate Fighter: Tournament of Champions. After winning their respective Round of 16 matchups, Pantoja dispatched Kara-France by unanimous decision in the quarterfinals.

With a win already under his belt and comfortably seated on the divisional throne, it’s not difficult to envision a situation where the champion starts thinking about the next matchup or even greater opportunities, only to get caught slipping by the heavy-handed challenger and dislodged from his place atop the 125-pound ranks.

You can see it because you’ve seen it happen myriad times in the past, but if Pantoja does fall on Saturday night, it won't be due to a lack of preparation or looking beyond his Maori rival.

“(We’re) completely different fighters,” Pantoja began, assessing the impact of their first encounter as he readies to share the Octagon with Kara-France for the second time. “But one thing still is that he remembers when I fought with him, I won the fight. That makes me (pay more) attention because if I lose to someone, the next time I have the chance to fight with that guy, I’m wanna win the fight.

“All the time I put my opponents like a giant. I train to fight with the best fighter in the world, and I think when a guy has the opportunity to fight for the belt, that’s one opportunity you want, and they come with everything. Everything he believes comes with him to the Octagon, and that's good advice for me. I know I wanna fight with someone that has too much to lose.

“I’ve had this position before — I’m the challenger against Moreno, and I fought to live or die, and I’m ready to do that again.”

Some will quickly chalk those words up to fighter speak, Pantoja saying what is expected of him because declaring he’s not worried about the knockout artist and City Kickboxing representative would be disrespectful and tempting fate, but the Brazilian is not and has never been that guy.

He’s not someone that routinely makes the media rounds, instead only turning up when it’s his turn to make the walk and battle for the opportunity to add another ruby to his championship belt.

He doesn’t sing his own praises, nor does he just say things for effect.

He’s determined and serious at all times, answering whatever questions he’s asked thoughtfully, truthfully, and approaching each fight with the passion and focus of a man who still carries himself like a hungry challenger rather than a satisfied champion.

“It means everything, man,” Pantoja said when asked about garnering another victory on Saturday. “I don’t recognize June 29. For me, my world, my life goes to June 28.

“I don’t know what’s happening Sunday. I just think about Saturday. When the fight is over, everything in my life comes back, but right now, everything in my life goes to June 28.”