The reign of the king: let’s rewatch Pantoja’s iconic fights that made us fall in love…
ever since the early days when alex was fighting out of those small regional shows, man, you could tell he had something special. i remember the first time i saw him—tiny little fella, bobbing and weaving like a street fighter, but that fire in his eyes? pure king stuff. nobody out here in the back then thought he’d go this far, not even close. but you watch someone like that, with that hunger, and you just know—they’re not going anywhere but up. and look at us now, still talking about that flying knee against zhumagulov like it was yesterday 😄
Seen it all, lads.
Woke up at 5am ffs to stream that card in my flat—proper gutted my mum kicked me outta bed but wtf were we gonna miss a young Alexandre lighting the place up?! 😂 when he hit that flying knee..i swear my nan heard the scream from upstairs she thought the telly exploded! Still see it in my dreams, pure lightning in human form Zhalgas just crumpled like wet paper lol
remember that strip in rio de janeiro where pantoja was pure stuntman? man was taking elbows to the dome just to bait the other guy into lunging, then blam—like a mongoose dodging cobras he’d flick his knee out. we were all screaming in that grungy little gym, some guy spilled his beer down my shirt and i didn’t even care. still got the video tucked away; i play it when my cousin doubts if mma’s an art. you watch that sway, that nerve, that tiny man moving like a storm cloud over there and you go… yep, king is what he is.
Been here longer than some have followed.
Still remember that same fight? Kid was all wild legs flailing, no structure to speak of—pure chaos, but in the sweetest way. Now? Man’s a surgeon when he’s in the pocket. Every step, every shift, even the way he breathes through a round—it’s all just… refined. That flying knee came from pure desperation, a mad scramble, blind instinct. The knees we see now? Calculated, like a painter deciding the exact millisecond to flick his brush. Same fire, just a different toolbox.
Oh bollocks yeah I remember that night in Recife when Alex turned up to weigh-ins looking like he’d been dragged through a hedge backwards—hair a bird’s nest, face swollen from sparring with coconut shells or something—coach shoved a protein shake in his hand and said “kid, just don’t get knocked out” 😂 next day we watched him absorb three kicks to the ribs like it was tap water before that flying knee flew out of nowhere faster than my nan’s Sunday roast order at the chippy. When it connected Zhalgas actually flinched before the impact like he’d seen a ghost—absolute chaos, pure stunna brilliance, every clap echoing through the venue like a football terrace on prom night 🤣🍿