UFC 301 Technical Preview: Steve Erceg is a tough fight for Alexandre Pantoja

A new contender, a fresh matchup, and a division that can't help but deliver nonstop action.

The UFC’s flyweight division has always had an issue with promising contenders being hastily vaulted into title contention. The organization’s habitual resistance to signing, promoting, and retaining 125-pound fighters has made it a near certainty that a rising prospect won’t be afforded time to develop.

Recently it seems the UFC has made a real effort to fill out their flyweight roster, with the number of debuted fighters now sitting above forty (that is less than half the size of more premiere divisions like lightweight). The unwillingness to give flyweights favorable positioning on fight cards persists though.

Steve Erceg, who challenges champion Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 301, is getting his chance at gold after only three fights in the promotion. His first two fights were undercard bookings on PPV events while his most recent saw him elevated to main card status, but on a dreadfully uninteresting UFC Apex event.

While Erceg hasn’t been given the opportunity to gain much experience fighting at this level of competition, at 28 years old and 8 years into his professional MMA career he’s likely closer to being a finished product that it may seem at first. Most importantly, the skills he has displayed in his 11 month UFC tenure make him a very interesting title challenger.

Who is Steve Erceg?

Erceg sits alongside many other recently materialized prospects who have made fundamental boxing technique the crowning jewel of their MMA skillsets.

It’s not unfair to see Erceg as a part of the same trend that has produced Ilia Topuria, Jack Della Madalena, and Sean O’Malley.

As such, Erceg builds his entire striking arsenal off his jab. A persistent annoyance to his opponents, Erceg’s jab, like any good one, serves many purposes.

After using it first to find range, he starts establishing it as a legitimate damaging threat. Once his opponents are forced to respect it, he starts using it to cover his entries and feints it to draw out responses to punish.

Steve Erceg builds all of his offense off his jab. As soon as opponents witness the speed and stiffness it has, Erceg starts using the threat of it to set up other attacks.

Erceg isn’t the kind of pressure fighter who is looking to back his opponents up to the fence and cut off escapes, but he pressures opponents by constantly presenting threats. His tight footwork allows him to keep his lead foot pointed at his opponent’s centerline, a position from where he can always quickly shoot out his jab.

He uses his footwork and jabs to convince opponents of the need to defend and counter his lead hand, but that is all part of the plan for Erceg. Once the opponent is made to respect the jab, Erceg starts using their reactions to set up his combinations.

The primary way he does this is by hooking off the jab and throwing 1-2s, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that he does the same two things over and over again.

Erceg doesn’t need a lot of different kinds of strikes to generate a large amount of variety with his combinations.

Depending on the specific responses and positioning of his opponents, Erceg will craft a variety of combinations, even if nearly all of them are built on the same three punches: the jab, the straight right, and the left hook.

Will he throw the jab hard and immediately follow with his right?

Will he feint the jab to draw out the parry and then throw his right?