Joshua Van already knew he would have his chance to earn a UFC contract after he was offered the opportunity to compete on The Contender Series in August, but then he got an unexpected call from his manager that changed everything.
For the third straight fight in a row, Zhalgas Zhumagulov lost an opponent just days before he was scheduled to compete and the UFC desperately wanted to get him booked. Rather than delay him any further after Felipe Burns was pulled from UFC Vegas 75, the promotion decided to push Zhumagulov back only one week after securing him a new fight for the UFC Jacksonville card instead.
That’s where Van comes in.
“I was supposed to fight in August [at The Contender Series],” Van told MMA Fighting. “I was just living a normal day and out of nowhere [my manager] Jason [House] called me last Thursday and he was like ‘hey can you make weight in two or three days?’”
He got the offer to fight just over one week later and it didn’t take Van more than a few seconds to accept the challenge. Truth be told, Van says he didn’t even bother asking about the opponent and it wasn’t until later that he actually figured out that he would be fighting Zhumagulov.
“I never asked the name,” Van said. “I never think to ask who I’m fighting. They called me and I’m like ‘yes, I’m in.’ For me, I don’t really watch fights like that so this is the first time I’ve heard of his name. I don’t watch fights unless it’s like Conor McGregor or [Israel] Adesanya so I didn’t know what was going on with him.
“All I know is I got the short notice call and I’ll be ready to go. For sure, I’ll be there to fight.”
After he ended the call, Van knew he had to check in with his head coach to ensure he was on board with the plan to debut in the UFC just a few days later but first he truly had to let the wave of emotions roll over him.
Van promises he wasn’t scared or necessarily overwhelmed, although the stomach-churning excitement definitely got the better of him.
“I was never nervous,” Van explained. “I was excited, especially when he called me, I couldn’t believe it. I got butterflies in my stomach. As soon as he hung up, I went to the bathroom and started throwing up.
“I was like damn, I can’t believe it. I was excited and happy and after that I called my coach like ‘Jason got me a fight, please don’t say no.’ I want this fight. I was just excited.”
Even though Van was seeking permission to take the fight, he had a pretty good idea that the answer was going to be yes, especially after revealing the identity of his coach.
“My head coach is Daniel Pineda so you know how Daniel Pineda is,” Van said with a laugh. “He’s down to fight anyone. He’s like ‘you ready?’ I said I’m ready and he goes ‘let’s get it.’ So here we are.”
Now taking any fight on just over one week’s notice is never going to be an ideal situation but Van won’t make any excuses because once he signed his contract, he was only thinking about winning on Saturday.
Van won’t pretend that he was deep in a training camp or putting in the road work to ensure his conditioning was top notch. Instead, Van prefers to just remember that he’s a fighter first and that means much like his coach, he’s always ready to out-violence any opponent regardless of the circumstances.
“When they called me, I’m not in the best shape but I know I’m in good shape,” Van said. “I’m not in fighting shape but I’m still in shape so it was easy for me to say yes.
“I always stay ready just in case anything like this happened. I was born to fight. I’m a fighter.”
