Van vs Pantoja 2: The Rematch Settles What 26 Seconds Couldn't

The last time Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja shared a cage, the flyweight title changed hands in 26 seconds — and not because anyone landed anything clean. Pantoja suffered an elbow injury early at UFC 323, the fight was waved off, and Van walked away with a belt that never got tested. Saturday at Crypto.com Arena, they finally get the fight both men wanted, with UFC 331 headlining the promotion's first Los Angeles show in eight years.

The context around the rematch has flipped since December. Van is no longer the underdog on a Cinderella run; he's a champion coming off a genuine statement, a fifth-round stoppage of Tatsuro Taira at UFC 328. Pantoja, now 36 and ranked #1 with a 30-6 record built on 12 submissions, arrives with something to prove: that the belt only left his hands because of a freak injury, not because anyone beat him.

How Van Got Here

Rewind two years and Van was rebuilding after a knockout loss to Charles Johnson. He answered with a win over Edgar Chairez at Sphere, then reeled off four more to earn his title shot. The 26-second coronation over Pantoja felt hollow, but the Taira defense didn't — Van showed championship-level durability and finishing instinct over 25 minutes. That's the version of Van showing up Saturday, and he knows it.

Pantoja's résumé demands respect regardless of how the first meeting ended. Before the injury, he'd stacked four straight title defenses and stretched his overall win streak to eight, including back-to-back submission finishes of Kai Asakura and Kai Kara-France. A win here makes him the third fighter to hold the flyweight strap twice. A loss likely closes the book on a rivalry that never really got started.

The Co-Main Nobody Wants to Miss

The undercard's biggest stakes belong to Arman Tsarukyan and Mauricio Ruffy, a rare non-title five-rounder at lightweight with a title shot widely expected to follow. Tsarukyan (23-3, ranked #2) hasn't fought since submitting Dan Hooker in Qatar last November via arm triangle, a win that pushed his UFC record to 10-2 and his streak to five. He's stayed sharp, grappling nearly every month since.

Ruffy is the wildcard. The Brazilian relocated his camp to Australia to train alongside featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski (28-4), and the results have been loud — a second-round stoppage of Rafael Fiziev in February, then a beating of Michael Chandler at the White House card in June. It's a straight styles clash: Tsarukyan's suffocating grappling against Ruffy's dynamic striking. Whoever solves the other gets the next crack at the belt.