Joshua Van is Quickly Becoming a Cardio Nightmare For Opponents

The flyweight king, Joshua Van, is a nightmare for his opponents. Not only is his output phenomenal, his accuracy sharp and his power stunning, but he also carries all of these attributes late on in fights.

The statistics show that, since becoming champion, he's finished Tatsuro Taira in the fifth round and knocked down Alexandre Pantoja in the fifth round, a knockdown that arguably won him the fight at UFC 331.

Before this, he knocked down Brandon Royval in the third and final round of their epic battle and recorded a third round finish of  Bruno Gustavo da Silva in June of last year.

When opponents think that Van cannot keep his output up, he does and does so with devastating power.

Final Round Output - Last Three Fights

In his most recent fight at UFC 331, Joshua Van's cardio made the difference in the final round. He attempted 97 strikes at an accuracy of 59%, landing 57. He outstruck Pantoja in a big way, who landed just 38 strikes.

He scored a knockdown in the final round, which could have swayed the judges in his favour.

Against Taira, he landed 27 strikes in the final round. The caveat to that lower number is that he finished the fight in 1:32, which proves that his power carries late into the fight.

Ignoring the first Pantoja fight as it ended via injury in the first 26 seconds, we skip ahead to look at the fight that got Van a title shot, his battle with Royval.

He landed 80 significant strikes in the final five minutes, but again, one of those strikes that he landed saw him score a knockdown and ultimately get his hand raised in an extremely close fight.

If Van can keep up his excellent record of late finishes and big output in the fifth round, he'll be a threat for the entire 25 minutes.