Tatsuro Taira dream fight as UFC champion

Tatsuro Taira is still a few days away from the biggest fight of his life, but he already knows what the perfect next chapter would look like.

First, he wants to beat Joshua Van at UFC 328 and finally win the flyweight belt. After that, if everything goes his way, he would love to go home and defend the title in Japan against Kyoji Horiguchi.

It is a very easy fight to understand the moment you hear it. Taira is one of the brightest Japanese names in the UFC right now. Horiguchi is still one of the biggest names Japanese MMA has produced in the modern era. Put a UFC title between them in Japan and the whole thing would feel huge before the first promo even drops.

Taira did not try to hide how much that idea means to him. He said, “If I beat Joshua Van and become champion, my dream fight is Kyoji Horiguchi in Japan.” That is the kind of sentence fighters usually save for later, after the belt is already around their waist. Taira said it now because the picture in his head is already very clear.

At the same time, he did not act like the division starts and ends with his own plans. That part of what he said was important too. He made it clear that Alexandre Pantoja still deserves the next title shot no matter what. “Pantoja deserves next,” Taira said. There was no confusion in it. No hedging. No attempt to jump over a man he feels has earned that respect.

Taira already knows his dream fight

That gives his comments a nice balance. He is dreaming big, but he is not pretending the rest of the flyweight division disappears just because he has a perfect picture in his head. He wants the belt, he wants a huge fight in Japan, but he also knows who has done the work in front of him.

The timing of all this makes it even better. Taira is only 26. He is still undefeated in the UFC. The title fight with Joshua Van has already been delayed once, which only made people wait longer to see what he looks like in the biggest spot of his career. Now he is almost there. One more fight, one more good night, and the whole division could start looking very different around him.

There is something very likeable in the way Taira is talking here. He sounds ambitious, but he does not sound greedy. He is not trying to bulldoze over everybody in the division with one big quote. He is just being honest about two things at once — what he wants, and what he believes is fair.

If he beats Joshua Van, the conversation will get very loud very quickly. A young Japanese champion is already a big story on its own. Add Kyoji Horiguchi to that picture, add Japan as the setting, and suddenly the whole thing feels even bigger. But first Taira has to get through the hardest part, and he knows that too.

• Taira says his dream fight as champion would be Kyoji Horiguchi in Japan.
• He still needs to beat Joshua Van at UFC 328 first.
• He also says Alexandre Pantoja deserves the next title shot.
• Taira is thinking big, but he is not ignoring the order of the division.

For now, that is where it sits. Tatsuro Taira has a title fight in front of him, a dream fight in his head, and enough respect for the division to say both out loud without mixing them up.