{"id":376551,"date":"2024-03-15T23:24:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T00:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=376551"},"modified":"2024-03-16T01:02:44","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T01:02:44","slug":"aussies-incredible-four-fight-rise-to-ufc-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=376551","title":{"rendered":"Aussie's incredible four-fight rise to UFC title shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Erceg will continue his incredible UFC<\/a> rise in May, with the company confirming the Australian flyweight will challenge Alexandre Pantoja<\/a> for the title.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old has only competed three times for the promotion since his debut last June, running through a number of opponents on his way up the rankings.<\/p>\n

Erceg moved into the division's top-10 after his recent \ufeffknockout win over Matt Schnell and will now get a shot at the champion at UFC 301 in Brazil.<\/p>\n

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The news was confirmed by the UFC on Saturday morning (AEDT) and will see Erceg compete on the main card of a pay-per-view for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Originally from Perth, the emerging flyweight star began his MMA journey on the local circuit in Australia, before moving abroad to sign with the industry leader.<\/p>\n

Erceg (12-1) is yet to taste defeat inside the UFC octagon, with wins over Schnell and David Dvorak earning him 'Performance of the Night' honours.<\/p>\n

At this stage, it's unclear whether or not the clash between Erceg and Pantoja will main event the show in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/arielhelwani\/status\/1768761677124653548?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Pantoja had referred to himself as Apollo Creed ahead of his next title fight against a fighter 'nobody knows about' via social media – and according to Erceg, it could be a real-life Rocky story unfolding.<\/p>\n

"I have Italian heritage," he told Fox Sports Australia. <\/p>\n

"So giving me my Rocky moment \u2026 that's not something you should be doing. I feel sorry for the guy that's going to be standing in front of me."<\/p>\n

Also announced for the UFC 301 card includes Paul Craig vs Caio Borralho in a middleweight bout, as well as Anthony Smith vs Vitor Petrino at light heavyweight. \ufeff<\/p>\n

Erceg will join the likes of Alexander Volkanovski<\/a> and Robert Whittaker<\/a> as fighters from Australia to have competed for UFC gold in their respective careers. \ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Erceg will continue his incredible UFC rise in May, with the company confirming the Australian flyweight will challenge Alexandre Pantoja for the title. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":376553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=376551"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":376554,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376551\/revisions\/376554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/376553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}