Deadlocked at one round each heading into the third, Van cranked up the intensity and the output, getting the better of the exchanges down the stretch to claim a unanimous decision win and position himself as the No. 1 contender in the 125-pound weight class. It was a whirlwind month, but none of it ever felt too big for the Houston-based flyweight.
“It don’t matter who I fight — ain’t no fight that is too big for me, too small for me,” he said in his syrupy drawl, smiling. “It just happens that I was fighting the No. 1 guy that night. God is good and we came out on top.
“I always talk about ‘I’ll fight for the title one day,’ this and that,” continued Van, who has won five straight now and is hopeful that he’ll be standing across from champion Alexandre Pantoja before the year is out. “Two years ago I made my debut, and me and my boy Dakota, on our way back home, I was like, ‘Man, in a couple years, we’re gonna be fighting for a title,’ and I just had my debut fight.”
He grinned, recognizing that how prophetic his words turned out to be.
“We manifested this, so for me, it’s normal.”