Fighter In-Depth: Joshua Van
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20-year-old Joshua “The Fearless” Van was born in Myanmar, a large country in Southeast Asia. In 2013, when he was 11-years-old, he moved to Houston, Texas.
Van was getting into a lot of fights in school and in the streets, eventually getting himself into a gym. There he met coach Scott Juarez at a gym called Precision. From there, he got started in MMA and hasn’t looked bad since. Right now Van trains between coach Renzo, Aztlan Boxing Gym, Temple Construction, and Active Jiu-Jitsu.
Joshua turned up the heat when he went pro in June of last year. He made his amateur MMA debut in December of 2020. He went 4-0 as an ammy and in his last fight before he turned pro, he won the Fury FC Amateur Series flyweight championship.
Van doesn’t have any other experience in any other combat sports. Everything he’s displayed has come naturally to him. It’s a little surprising Van hasn’t partaken in any deep muay thai training or fights, considering he’s so good in that area. From the muay thai plum or just in the phonebox, Van is nasty with his offense. He throws relentlessly to the body with knees and hooks being his main focus when he’s in close. He does a great job as well throwing a head kick when breaking away into the distance.
His biggest gray area is easily his takedown defense. He’s taken down in about every fight, but does manage to usually always get back to his feet. I say usually cause his sole loss came to him not being able to stay upright and eventually getting caught in an RNC. A fight he was out striking his opponent but the other guy was too strong and had the slightly better jiu-jitsu… Van does move well off his back doing a good job not accepting a position.
On the flip side, he would much rather strike, but can wrestle as well. Just recently, he showed how much of a slick grappler he is hitting a rare calf slicer submission. I’m sure his grappling isn’t at a high level, but the mindset is most definitely there.
On the feet, Van is a mix of power, aggression, gritty, and fluidity. He will throw his hands, and some heavy kicks to the body and legs while mixing in some knees as well. Van even likes to throw with some flash with spinning kicks to the body and head. Nothing overdone, as everything seems thought out with what he throws.
One of the many things he does so well is cut off the cage and stay in your face. He’s very aggressive, but not overaggressive and still picks his shots, not being overzealous in his offense. Van is a volume striker when he lets go, mixing in kicks to striking and vice versa.
He’s still extremely young, so it will be years until we know how high his ceiling is. Fighting in Texas for Fury FC, they will keep him active and overtime he’ll be tested more. Right now he’s fighting the lesser of the flyweight talent, but that’s completely fine right now.
His skillset at his age, and fighting at 125lbs is very exciting. Joshua Van is definitely one to keep an eye on and watch for every time he fights.
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