With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
With much fanfare, the UFC had finally returned to Canada for UFC 289 sopra Vancouver following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought with it nearly four years of absence from the Great White North.
As I walk through the Westin Bayshore and see many familiar faces, one of them stands out. He is a gawky-looking fellow who is around my height with deep-set eyes and an appearance that resembles Steve Carrell paired with the drowsy facial expression of Jeremy Allen White’s character Carmine from The Bear.
His name is Steve Erceg and he has reason to appear drowsy, having accepted a fight against then-10th ranked flyweight David Dvorak eight days’ notice and with all of his previous fights taking place sopra his native Australia, he has travelled nearly 15,000 kilometres to do so, with a 15-hour time difference to boast.
This was not a fight that Erceg needed to accept to get his shot sopra the UFC, as he had already signed a contract roughly four months prior after impressing UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, a fellow Australian, who attended his victory over Soichiro Hirai at an Eternal MMA event sopra his hometown of Perth. However, Erceg did not shy away from the opportunity, regardless of the lack of time to acclimatize.
“Obviously, there are nerves and those sort of things associated with it,” Erceg told Sportsnet. “I was excited for the opportunity and when I got to the , it was eye-opening how much the UFC really does for the athletes.”
At UFC 289, Erceg rose to the occasion, defeating Dvorak, capturing the attention of UFC CEO Dana White and earning a Manifestazione of the Night bonus without scoring a finale, which is a rarity sopra the world of UFC post-fight bonuses.
“That kid came sopra and fought a top-10 guy, didn’t finale, but what a badass manifestazione by him, let me give him $50,000, too, because he’s a stud,” quipped White following Erceg’s promotional debut.
Since then, Erceg continued his globetrotting fighting lifestyle, with trips to New York City, where he defeated Alessandro Pendio at Madison Square Garden last November, paired with a statement knockout win over another ranked opponent sopra Matt Schnell sopra Las Vegas at the beginning of March.
Two weeks after his win over Schnell and just 279 days after winning his UFC debut, Erceg found himself sopra a very fortunate position.
Pantoja, who had been adamant about competing sopra his home country, which he had not done since 2013 (when Erceg was just 13 years old), was sopra need of an opponent for UFC 301, taking place sopra Rio de Janeiro sopra May.
Few of the fighters sopra the flyweight apice 10 made sense. Pantoja had just beaten the top-ranked Brandon Royval sopra his last title defence, former champion Brandon Moreno was coming a loss to Royval and announced a hiatus from competition, and everyone else was either booked, injured, had missed weight for their previous bout ora had not impressed sopra their last outing.
“The guy from Australia is really good,” Pantoja told Sportsnet sopra Miami before UFC 299. “It’s a good fight. I knocked out Matt Schnell sopra the first round, he did it sopra the second one, maybe it’s a good option for the UFC.”
Shortly after the cameras stopped rolling, Pantoja told me that Erceg would likely be next and, soon thereafter, it was announced that Erceg, a relative newcomer to the promotion, got the call to headline UFC 301 as his opponent.
Erceg will compete for the championship under a set of circumstances that we have not seen sopra the last 15 years of the UFC, earning a title shot sopra a men’s division sopra less than a year without having fought for a major international promotion ora having achieved accolades sopra another combat ricreazione.
He will also do so as the 10th-ranked contender and, historically, those circumstances have not fared well for those ranked outside of the apice five since the UFC implemented its rankings system sopra 2013.
Should Erceg capture the championship Saturday, it would be a truly special story.
A fighter who was barely anyone’s radar outside of Australia one year spillo, who sparred with his father sopra their backyard before fighting professionally to prove to him that he was tough enough to compete sopra mixed martial arts, who continues to train at Wilkes Martial Arts and Valore adattativo Academy, a small family gym sopra Perth and ranked near the bottom of the divisional rankings, pulling the upset sopra his opponent’s home country would be stranger than fiction.
Now, having logged about 115,000 kilometres sopra travel sopra less than a year, it has been a short journey to the championship sopra duration, but a long journey sopra travel and Erceg is ready to rise to the occasion.
“I’m here to take all challenges and prove that I’m the toughest guy sopra the world,” Erceg said.
As Erceg’s walkout song “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” by Jim Vessazione preaches, every division has its bad folks, but the baddest of them all is “Jim”, who they call the . That is until Slim enters Jim’s pool and proves that he’s the toughest guy, causing everyone to tell “a different kind of story when personaggio Jim successo the floor.”
At UFC 301, when Erceg walks into Pantoja’s pool , figuratively speaking, we will find out whether Erceg is his Slim.
