Before Joshua Van became a promising talent in the UFC‘s flyweight division, his path to mixed martial arts was marked by street fights and a challenging youth.
The 22-year-old, originally from Myanmar, faced significant challenges adapting to life in the United States, including language barriers and bullying.
These experiences pushed him to stand his ground, as he emphasized in an interview with MMA Fighting:
As a kid, people pick on you because you don’t speak the language or you’re a different race or something and you’re built small.
I didn’t like that so I stood my ground and fought, especially because I couldn’t say nothing back.
Van admits to seeking out fights, using them as opportunities to test his skills and to gain attention.
However, his undefeated streak on the streets came to an end in one, well, memorable encounter.
Van recalls the incident, which involved a confrontation with his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend:
I took his girl so he was mad. He hit me up on Snapchat, I think that was like 2016 or 2017 so he hit me up and I ain’t no b*tch.
So I pulled up, he’s 6-foot-tall and I was, like: “Oh sh*t, I f*cked up. Can’t back out now.” So we had to bang it out and thank god, he didn’t know how to fight.
Despite his smaller stature, Van initially had the upper hand – but the fight’s duration and his opponent’s resilience led to an unexpected outcome
I was banging the dude out, cutting him up and the dude just kept coming.
I had to throw up and I told him: “You win.”That was probably the only fight I lost. I hit him, I threw up right after and I said: “Look, let’s be friends, you win.” That was the longest street fight I ever had.
He shook my hand. He got two of his friends, and I had one of my friends, and we all shook hands and we just sat there.
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