UFC star Steve Erceg reflects on costly blunder in world title loss to Alexandre Pantoja – as Aussie misses out on $50k bonus

Rising UFC star Steve Erceg has revealed the ‘gaffe’ that cost him the flyweight belt, but says anyone who thinks he’s worthless can tell it to his face – in the cage.

Erceg’s fight with undisputed flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja in Brazil on Sunday was in the balance after four rounds.

Up until that point, Erceg had controlled the fight when it was on his feet, but Pantoja had the edge when it came to wrestling.

Erceg went into the fifth and final round thinking he had to finish off Pantoja to be crowned the winner.

Erceg only needed to win the fifth round, but instead opted for a costly takedown because he thought he had to finish his opponent

In reality, Erceg only had to win the fifth round on points to emerge victorious.

Erceg’s decision to go for a takedown twice in the fifth round proved to be his undoing, with Pantoja able to take advantage of the situation to secure the victory.

The judges scored the fight 48-47, 48-47, 49-46.

“Hindsight is obviously 20/20,” Erceg told AAP on Monday.

“I was winning on my feet. But I thought that if I gave him the opportunity to shoot first (with a takedown), I might lose the fight as well.

“So I thought I’d shoot first, and because he’s tired, I thought he’d scramble slower and I could stay on top.

“But obviously it didn’t work out that way and I ended up losing the battle, so that’s what I meant by screwing up.”

Despite his excellent performance, Erceg was not rewarded with any of the $50,000 performance bonuses handed out afterwards, all of which were given to Brazilian fighters.

Sunday’s fight was only Erceg’s fourth in the UFC arena.

Despite nearly upsetting the world champion, Erceg did not receive a fight bonus

Erceg says that those who want to criticize him can come and meet him in the cage

And despite being devastated by the loss, Erceg says the performance at least proved it deserves to be ‘right up there with the big dogs’.

But the 28-year-old is also well aware of the critics.

“Of course people are going to have a lot of crap to say about my wrestling or my IQ,” Erceg said.

“But if they have something to say and they think I’m worthless, you know where to find me: in the cage.

“I mean, everyone who analyzes the fight has a very similar opinion to me: I lost the fight, not he won the fight.

“There are a lot of analysts whose opinions I respect who have come out and said exactly that: I made a big blunder.

“It’s obviously not easy to hear, but it’s what I need to hear.”

Erceg is keen to return to the cage for UFC 305 in his hometown of Perth on August 18.

The West Australian needed just three UFC wins before achieving his first flyweight title success, but he knows his next title fight may not happen so soon.

“It could take me three fights to get back there, it could be eight fights. You never really know,” he said.

As for the next fight on his bucket list?

Erceg is keen to continue fighting the elite and mentions No. 1 challenger Brandon Royval, No. 5 Alex Perez and No. 6 Muhammad Mokaev as possibilities.