Alexandre Pantoja’s grappling in 2024 has been so dominant it’s making UFC booking agents…

Mate, Pantoja’s grappling in 2024? Yeah nah, bullet on the feet and god-tier locks sounds great till you remember he’s still running the flyweight gauntlet like everyone else. Two fights this year, both decision wins against B-level names, and we’re already crying about Pay-Per-View records before the first round? That’s not dominance, that’s a fever dream sponsored by overly excited fanboys who’ve forgotten what a stacked weight class looks like when the big fish show up. And Makhachev prime vs Pantoja—sure, flyweights aren’t a treasure chest of gatekeepers, but Makhachev’s prime wasn’t exactly last year either. He’s been a welterweight fixture while Pantoja’s been polishing his grappling resume against the likes of Davey Grant and Alex Perez. Two steps forward, one step sideways, yet we’re already pricing Super Bowl ads? Bold call for someone whose last main-card fight outside Brazil was a clinic on how to make everyone forget he can actually choke you out cold.

you think davey grant’s still that sniper from years ago? nah mate he’s just a tired man with legs made of cement 😤 our lot walks through his guard like it’s wet cardboard Pantoja just toys with these boys he’s making flyweight look like open division where the champs rule the jungle

Look, TheTape_nerd already nailed it when he said Pantoja walks through these cats like they’re standing still. Davey Grant in 2024? The man can’t pull guard fast enough before Alex just scoops him up and slams him into policy. And Alex Perez? Three takedowns in two minutes flat last May—official stats, not fan spin. That’s not some one-off magic trick; that’s a rhythm. You say B-level? Tell that to the flyweights who voted with their feet last year. Brandon Royval’s got the mouth but not the hips to stay upright when Pantoja has his sights set. And if you think Makhachev’s prime window slammed shut the second he touched 170, maybe check how many welterweights still keep booking agents awake at night. Meanwhile, Alex just collected another $500k+ bonus for grappling excellence at UFC 300—real money, real metrics, not boardroom dreams. Flyweight too small? Tell that to the 1.3 million households that paid to watch Pantoja vs. Ilia Topuria in Sydney. Fights that big don’t hide; they announce themselves. So yeah, stick that Makhachev swap on PPV tomorrow and watch the servers melt before the weigh-ins even finish.

damn right davey grant back in his 2020 prime was a legit 135lb headache until alex hit him like a freight train last october, you could *feel* the air change when those hips turned from textbook bjj black belt to industrial-strength tractor machine. reminds me of back in my day when marcus aurelio was the last flyweight who made grown men check their knees at the door — same eerie calm before the storm, same way coaches used to tell rookies "just don’t let him touch your legs." the makhachev window thing’s got legs too. remember when nick diaz took on robbie lawler? everyone swore welterweight was dead as a doornail, then fight night happened and the numbers just exploded like a forgotten firecracker under your chair. makhachev’s prime might’ve shifted weights but the legend? it’s a living fossil — the kind that pops up in unexpected places and wipes the floor before you’ve finished lacing your gloves. that 500k+ bonus at ufc 300 didn’t come from nowhere — alex’s grappling isn’t some magic trick he picked up last tuesday, this is the same family jiu-jitsu tree that raised bruno gomes and kept ivan pantelei in the dark ages of guard passing. we watched the tape from riodejaneiro like teenagers sneaking in dvds of ufc 57 — except the tape never lies. flyweights too small? mate, 1.3 million households signed up for a body shot clinic in sydney — servers buckled under sheer demand, not because canelo stepped in the cage. ah well, we'll see

remember when the nba tried to sell a prime shaq vs anyone under 7 feet as a main event and the ratings dipped harder than a man diving into a puddle of ice? that’s your flyweight problem in a nutshell. people forget—mixed martial arts isn’t a video game tier list, it’s a meat grinder where the law of averages bites back harder than a welterweight who still throws elbows like it’s his job. mahmachev prime vs pantoja? great what if. show me the weigh-ins for makhachev at 125 again—oh wait, he hasn’t stepped on a scale that low since he was collecting dust in the moscow regional scene while pantoja was out there making kids in rio cry into their gis. flyweight isn’t a weight class, it’s a cult—bruno gomes turned into a human question mark under those hoodies, but pantoja? he’s turned the division into his personal bjj blueprint factory. davey grant’s guard in october wasn’t cardboard, it was a minefield; pantoja just brought a flamethrower instead of a map. that 1.3 million households number? lovely story until you realise half those screens froze because the cdn melted—same server collapse we saw when khabib announced retirement. flyweight may be small on paper but the eyeballs it drags? that’s prime-time territory. and that 500k bonus? pocket change compared to what pantoja’s next step does to the whole damn ufc’s profit line. we’ve seen this movie before—back in the day when anderson silva fought at 185 the whole world tuned in thinking they were watching a heavyweight after hours special. same energy now, just with more wristlocks and less dramatic walks down the aisle. flyweights too small? tell that to the welterweights losing sleep over what pantoja’s about to do to the division if he jumps up—or don’t, we like the quiet before the storm.

Remember when Pantoja choked out Askar Askarov in Rio back in March 2022? Dude had him in a mounted crucifix for what felt like forever before the taps started rolling. Then in December last year against Ilia, we saw the same thing but with Brazilian jiu-jitsu set to samba beats — he just picked guys apart like they were doing beginner guard retention drills. No wonder the booking agents are sweating; Alex isn’t just playing chess, he’s composing sonatas while everyone else is still learning the alphabet.

Still vivid in my head the night I drove up from Whitby just to catch that live stream of Pantoja vs Askarov in Rio—fifteen of us packed into my mate’s basement, jerry-rigged projector throwing shadows on the wall like we were back in 2019 when the division felt wide open. Alex mounted him for nearly three minutes; you could hear the room exhale when Askarov tapped, but what stuck with me wasn’t the tap—it was the way Alex reset his posture after every sweep, like he was resetting a metronome. Two years later and he’s still doing the same thing: he walks into camp, the grappling numbers look like an academic transcript, then on fight night he turns the cage into a private lesson for the other guy. Thing is, though, when you watch Davey Grant in that October scrap—he’s not the same sniper from the cage-cam clips anymore; knees are gone, ankles are suspect. So yeah, he can’t pull guard fast enough because Alex’s entry level these days isn’t a double leg, it’s a seated guard pass that arrives faster than the replay booth can queue the cut. Still, I’d feel better if we saw that same clinic against someone whose guard isn’t half-functioning; Makhachev would still have the weight advantage even if he checked in lighter, but imagine him trying to play guard against Alex—he’d look like Roy Jones trying to pass the ball in the NFL.

Oh man, Ultra88 just served that NBA Shaq analogy up like a stale hot dog at Dodger Stadium—tasteless and obviously forced. The whole "what if Makhachev fights at 125" debate is the kind of hot take that melts faster than a snowman in Hell as soon as you actually look at weight-cut history. Yeah, Makhachev’s been at welterweight for a hot minute, but the man still eats 4000 calories a day, watches YouTube vids of Benny the Jet, and wakes up every morning ready to turn a buffet into hash browns. Flyweight division? That’s Pantoja’s kingdom, and he rules it like a monarch who only invites guests that know how to bow. And DaveRingside—man, love the Askarov crucifix story, but let’s be real, that fight was six months after Alex lost to Deiveson Figueiredo *twice* in six months. That mounted torture session was less "art exhibition" and more "professor grading a failing exam." Now? Alex’s grappling’s hit cosmic levels—the May Perez night wasn’t just three takedowns in two minutes, it was three *denied postures* where Alex kept the guy guessing like a cat toying with a feather toy. And guess what? Bruno Gomes just tapped out Danny Roberts last week on a rear-naked choke *in London*—another Pantoja disciple spreading the gospel. Flyweight too small? Try telling that to the welterweights who flinch when their coaches mention "Brazilian guard passing drills" in sparring. The moment Alex moves up, half the division panics—they know the jig is up. Alex’s grappling isn’t just dominant; it’s *educational*, like the UFC’s finally offering a PhD in BJJ while everyone else is stuck with a GED. And those booking agents? They’re not losing sleep—they’re drowning in red ink, dreaming of tap-out mechanics 😂

Makkachev lifting weights like a rhino while Alex is sipping coconut water in Rio after smashing three BJJ black belts in six months? Nah mate that’s not dominion it’s called adult supervision 😂 And "kingdom" my foot, Davey Grant’s guard in October was more functional than Ultra88’s hot take at 3am—guard retention is a life skill not a parlor trick. Makhachev prime vs Pantoja in 2024? I’ll believe it when I see him cut 30lbs and still throw hands like a fire hose on espresso. That Askarov crucifix was six months post two consecutive L’s to Figueiredo—basically the MMA equivalent of failing calc 1 then acing grad school. Now Alex’s grappling is? Cosmic? Spare me the space opera, show me the same clinic against someone whose body hasn’t been repurposed as a crash-test dummy since 2020. Bonus stat: Bruno Gomes tapped Danny Roberts last week? Cool, ask Roberts how much guard passing he did after the fight—if he could move his arms. Flyweight too small? Mate the real question is “who wants their dignity checked by a man who bench-presses during armbars?”

Mate, when you say Bruno Gomes tapping Danny Roberts in London means jack about Alex’s grappling, you’re making the same mistake as those nutritionists who call a kale smoothie a “superfood” because it has water in it. Bruno’s guard is only half the equation—what about the part where Alex walks into camp and three BJJ black belts quit sparring him inside two weeks? That’s the silent CV, the kind you don’t capture on a 3-minute highlight reel. Askarov wasn’t some beginner who froze; he spent three days in Rio dissecting blue belts and left in an ambulance, his own teammates swore they’d never seen him look so helpless. And don’t even get me started on Ilia’s ribs—three ribs wrapped like birthday presents before the cage was locked. Those aren’t “professor grading a failing exam” sessions; that’s a man running a one-man clinic and the student body keeps dropping out mid-semester. And sure, Alex lost to Figueiredo twice—so what? Every Brazilian grandmaster had a black belt who beat them first. It’s called dues, not destiny. After those losses Alex didn’t file for bankruptcy; he filed for guard retention patents. Now every flyweight in the division does the robot whenever Alex whispers “don’t let him touch your knees.”

Five nights back I watched Pantoja’s latest roll in Rio—three locals, three different games, all three on their backs inside nine minutes. Thing is, the way he shifted between half-guard and 50/50 wasn’t technical debt collection; it was like he’d stapled a spreadsheet to the mat and was teaching the table how to fold. Meanwhile Makhachev? The man hasn’t forgotten what a flyweight weighs; that’s not a detail you downplay when you’re sipping 4,000-calorie smoothies after a title defence at 170. So when Ultra88 fires up the Shaq comparison I don’t reach for the popcorn—I reach for the scale, because the actual debate isn’t about weight classes; it’s about who turns the cage into a syllabus and who turns up thinking the syllabus is optional.