Joshua Van reveals struggle to get Dana White and UFC matchmakers' approval to represent Myanmar: "My country is going through a civil war"

Burmese-American flyweight Joshua Van recently got the opportunity to represent Myanmar at UFC 313. Van defeated Rei Tsuruya handily during the prelims of the pay-per-view event, but he had a tough fight to represent his birth nation's flag.

Van recently appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show, sharing details of the hard path he took to carry the South East Asian nation's flag.

The 23-year-old mentioned that Myanmar is presently in a political crisis, and it might've prevented the use of the flag in the past:

"When I got to the UFC, I was trying to carry my flag, but my country is going through a civil war right now, maybe that's the reason, but they told me they didn't know Myanmar was a country," Van said.

The flyweight defeated Zhalgas Zhumagulov on his promotional debut and tried to carry his flag for his second fight at UFC 295. Unfortunately, he couldn't do it.

Nonetheless, he finally made his dream come true after he shared his thoughts about the matter to Dana White:

"So my second fight, I did it again. Then they told me there was a commission, that I have to confirm that it was a country, you know? And so my last fight, I mean the fight before my last one when I fought Cody [Durden], I asked Dana White and the UFC to let me carry my flag. For my last fight, they finally confirmed it," Van added.

Check out Joshua Van's comments below (1:37:28):

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Joshua Van derives inspiration from legendary pugilist and Dana White's former cash cow

Joshua Van's family fled to Malaysia from Myanmar during the early 2000s due to the political tension in his birth country. The family moved to Houston, Texas, when Van was 12.

Due to his relatively less knowledge of English and smaller stature, he was bullied and had a troubled childhood. As such, he used to get into fights, but it changed when his aunt advised him.

In the aforementioned interview, Van shared the conversation.

"My auntie, she had a talk with me. She was like, 'Why you always got in a fight? You know? You really think you're a real man or something like that? ... Nah, that's not how real men work. A real man fights for his country.' And she used Manny Pacquiao as an example. She was like, 'Look at Manny Pacquiao fighting for his country,'" Joshua Van said [1:41:27].

At the time, Van had no idea what MMA was.

Soon after, he stumbled upon Conor McGregor trash-talking Floyd Mayweather Jr. before their anticipated crossover boxing bout, which Dana White co-promoted.

Interestingly, Van found McGregror to be too disrespectful, but when he saw the fights of the Irishman, 'Fearless' became a fan.