Joshua Van has finally opened up about the mysterious injury that pushed his highly anticipated title defense against Tatsuro Taira from UFC 327 to last night's UFC 328—and it turns out, it was a lot more serious than fans realized.

Van dominated Taira with a fifth-round TKO, battering the Japanese challenger until the referee stepped in. If there were any lingering effects from the injury that forced the delay, you wouldn't have known it from his performance. But in a candid post-fight interview with Full Send MMA, "Fearless" revealed just how bad things got behind the scenes.

"It was serious, man. It was bad," Van said. "I couldn't run. Even this camp, I couldn't run until the last two weeks. Bro, my knee was f–ked."

The 24-year-old flyweight champion admitted the decision to pull out of the original April 11 date wasn't his. "It was Daniel Pineda and my coaches," he explained. "They had a little meeting and said, 'We gotta call it off, man.' There was nothing I could do for cardio. I did the bike and stuff like that, sparred sometimes, but my knee was f–ked, bro."

This isn't the first time Van has dealt with knee trouble, though it's the first time it kept him out of the cage. "When I fought Alexandre Pantoja and when I fought at Noche UFC, I had an LCL tear and I fought through that," he revealed. "So this is nothing new. But the coaches saw me take a day off. To them, that never happens. I'm the guy they tell to take a rest, so that's probably why they called off the fight."

Looking back, the decision was a smart one. Van poured on relentless damage against Taira, but the Japanese fighter never quit, pushing the pace for the full five rounds. If Van's movement or cardio had been even slightly off, the result could have been very different.

Now the big question is how quickly the defending champion can turn around for his next fight. With Alexandre Pantoja waiting cageside, the flyweight division is watching closely to see when Van will be ready to defend again.