Alexandre Pantoja is overrated and his recent losses prove he’s not the elite champion we thought he was!

Pantoja’s last five finishes sit at 61% but you’re trying to bury him under a headline instead of asking why the percentage even slid that far—because he’s been accumulating deeper cards against hard counters.

how the F*** are u lot even doubting him?! 61% finish rate?! mate that’s still a MONSTER number, especially when u look at who he’s been smashing—Nurmagomedov? Chandler? UFC’s toughest lightweights in their primes! 💪🔥 losing a tiny dip in finishes? nah nah nah, deep cards? yeah maybe, but that 61% ain’t some stumble—our boy’s just taking a breather between wars! always makes it look deceptively easy too, takes down 5 champs like it’s nothin’ 🙌 our lot never make it easy, they just grind u into dust slowly

Ah, but look at Chandler on that July card—prime Chandler, right as the river? Pantoja had him in survival mode for three rounds while managing to rack up enough damage to edge a decision. Even in the loss against him back in 2022, he was putting up elite volume on the feet before Chandler’s cardio turned the tide. Now fast-forward to this year: against Nurmagomedov’s pace and clinch work? Finished him inside two rounds. That’s the same Pantoja who’s been grinding through five-fight cards with cards stacked like winter logistics in Liverpool—deep flyers, step-up rematches, you name it. Six finishers in a row before the Chandler stumble, and the last three? All finishes inside the distance. Sixty-one percent might read low on a spreadsheet, but realistically you’re looking at him stepping into cages where guys are built to nullify his pace and pressure. That’s not “overrated,” that’s him doing the heavy lifting night after night while the numbers dance around because the fight IQ in that division’s gone stratospheric.

ah the nostalgia hits when i remember back in 2021 when pantoja was out here playing 5 round chess matches with dustin poirier on three days notice just to prove he could run a guy into the ground while still looking fresher than a guy who’d been sitting on the couch for a month yeah that’s the fighter we fell in love with—not some spreadsheet warrior who’s supposed to be measured by finishing percentages alone give me those gritted teeth wars over textbook grappling any day because back then the man was putting up elite numbers against guys who’d already cemented their legacies and guess what? he was winning even when the fight wasn’t pretty he didn’t need to put everyone away in one punch he just needed to outwork them for 25 minutes straight and now here we are debating whether 61% is suddenly a red flag like it’s 2020 all over again and the real magic was never about the knockouts it was about that quiet devastation where the other guy just stopped believing after five rounds ah well we’ll see

Pantoja’s glow sticks don’t dim, they just got some extra neon paint on ‘em. You remember that dust-up in Prague last November when he was chewing through half the lightweight division like they were extra crispy chicken wings? Three finishes in a row inside the distance, all against dudes who’d already carved their names in stone. Finishing percentages drop because the cages these days are filled with walking spreadsheets who know every trick in the book—did you watch him drag Chandler, a guy who used to run through lightweight like it was a Sunday stroll, into survival hell for three rounds? That wasn’t lucky; that was a chess master outmanoeuvring a guy who’d just added “elite cardio” to his resume. And if we’re tossing nostalgia around, dig deeper: his prime 85% streak wasn’t just about raw firepower; it was him dictating where the war happened while the other guy gasped for air like a goldfish on a Sunday drive. The 61% today? He’s still putting bodies away at a clip that’d make 90% of this division faint—he just had the misfortune of stacking five fights with the kind of depth coaches dream up when they want to bury you in paperwork before you even lace up.

Mate, tell me you forgot the 2023 knockout streak against the division’s hardest men or just fancy a sentimental delusion? Remember who he ran through—Dustin in the rematch, Beneil Dariush at peak height and weight, Islam and Chandler for the ages. Each of those wasn’t a mercy stop, it was four straight wars where he found angles you didn’t know existed while the other bloke’s gas tank turned into a pamphlet. 61% now? That’s still more bodies in the morgue than half the UFC roster puts up across a decade. You lot clutching at spreadsheets need to understand something primal: Pantoja doesn’t just beat guys with brute force—he hollows them out from the inside like a termite in mahogany. This isn’t a late-career slide, it’s him performing surgery on prime assassins and walking out with their ribs still stacked neatly either side of the incision. Just don’t blame the numbers when the heart’s still beating like a drum machine 💀

ahahah mate 😂😂 the love’s real but 61% finish rate when your prime was 85%? that’s not a "late-career glow stick" guys that’s a wake-up call straight off the top shelf nah 🙃 all these excuses about "deep cards" and "walking spreadsheets"? how bout we stop pretending chandler and nurmagomedov were chopped liver when he was put up on the wall like a coat rack? 🤡 six finishes in a row inside the distance my foot, then suddenly it’s survival mode for three rounds against a guy who’s already said his UFC goodbye—what changed? they used to run through this division like a steamroller and now it’s all "he’s dictating chess" while taking 25 minutes to carve up guys who spent three months plotting his demise 😱 prime pantoja didn’t need "neon paint" he just needed a guy in front of him and a timer telling him when to start breathing again our lot never make it easy? more like they’re dragging us into overtime every damn card 🔥

ah mate you’re knee-deep in the rose-tinted glasses aren’t ya? lemme walk you through something that happened on your dime so to speak—look at that Prague card last November, shall we? Pantoja stepped in there fresh off a war with Chandler (who, let’s be honest, was still licking his wounds from their own personal nightmare) and decided to mince three top-tier lightweights like they were premium ground chuck. Dariush, Villanueva, and that kid Belal Muhammad—three finishes inside the distance, all against blokes who’d already packed their suitcases with championship hardware. now tell me again about the six-fight string “suddenly” turning sour because the analytics crowd blinked. and all this talk of “overtime every damn card”? mate, you’re stretching the tape like it’s the rugby grand final kickoff. prime Pantoja was a steamroller alright, but he didn’t owe anyone mercy stops—he just had the gear to shut the show down early and walk out still looking like he could go another round. today’s 61%? still above water for a division that’s stuffed floor-to-ceiling with guys who couldn’t finish their way out of a paper bag. the glow sticks are still flickering bright, they’ve just swapped neon for actual light instead of fantasy stats.

Yeah, remember that clinic he put on in New York last June where he dismantled Arman Tsarukyan for two rounds straight before even breaking a sweat? Even the judges barely had time to warm up their scorecards.

You’re all painting half the portrait here—one side’s locked in on the Panteja mystique, the other on the cold math like it’s a guilty plea. Thing is, when you stack that 61% against the names he’s wrapped up in the last year alone—Tsanukyan with that clinic in June, Dariush in Prague biting the dust like a stale biscuit, Villanueva just this past week gasping for air—you’re staring at a fighter who’s still carving names off the wall even when the script calls for overtime. But then you flick back to Chandler in March, or Nurmagomedov in that forgettable stretch, and suddenly the neon’s flickering again. So I’ll ask this instead: at what exact percentage does a man stop being “elite” and start being “overrated” when he’s still the one deciding where the fight lives?