In most cases, a UFC fighter takes inspiration from another iconic fighter to dream of becoming a champion. However, for the reigning UFC flyweight champion, Joshua Van, getting into various street fights when he was young is what actually pushed him to pick up martial arts, despite him admitting that it nearly cost him his life.   

Ahead of his anticipated rematch against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 331, the 24-year-old recently appeared on the Becoming a Fighter podcast with Megan Olivi, where he narrated the story of getting into so much trouble through street fights that his parents were forced to move him to his auntie’s residence in Iowa. But the situation remained much the same, as Van continued getting into random fights there. 

“So, I got in too much trouble, and I got into this little fight where it was threatening my life,” Van said. “So, I had to move to Iowa. And when I moved there, my parents thought things were going to change, because that’s when I met my auntie. They thought things were going to change, but I was still fighting. 

“There was a little spot where me and my friends would hang out and things like that. So, since I was always fighting, my name was known, you know, in the school and in the place that we hung out and things like that. We got a couple of guys coming to that spot, and they were screaming my name. They were like, ‘Where’s Joshua? You know, we want to fight him.’”   

Van continued the story, stating that his group turned out to be 30 to 40 guys, all ready to throw down at the park. However, the rival group could only manage to bring “five people.”

A young Joshua Van thought that such a discrepancy wouldn’t justify the street fight, so he decided to fight all five of them in one-on-one matchups. After swiftly defeating them, Van’s peers encouraged him to start doing “UFC,” meaning he should properly train in martial arts, which ultimately ended up motivating him. 

“And they picked this guy, and he was, I guess, a trained fighter, and I didn’t know,” Van added. “You know, we fought, and I got the better of him. My friends were like, ‘Hey, you should do UFC and things like that.’ And I was like, ‘What is UFC? You know, what is MMA?’ And, you know, he was just like, ‘It’s fighting stuff, man. Like, you should do it. You should train.’” 

To be fair, this is not a new admission from Joshua Van. Before his breakout fight against Brandon Royval at UFC 317, the 125-pound champion told the same story to Sportsnet and even mentioned that he beat one of the guys who was trained in Muay Thai during one of his random street fights, which was definitely a daring task. However, he is not the first fighter to take such a path.

Famously, Jorge Masvidal gained popularity before entering the UFC by spending his days fighting in Kimbo Slice’s backyard, bringing the flavor of Miami street fights into the Octagon. Besides him, UFC lightweight fighter Trevor Peek also mentioned having problems with getting into random street fights, which fueled his passion for MMA.

That said, we could actually see Joshua Van’s grit inside the cage, with him never giving up in moments of adversity and always firing back, which could very well stem from his street-fighting background. Now, it would be interesting to see whether he can show that same tenacity against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 331.