When Joshua Van won the flyweight title in December, Alexandre Pantoja threw a head kick, Van caught it, Pantoja landed on his arm and dislocated his elbow 26 seconds into the fight. It was the fastest stoppage in UFC flyweight title history and it satisfied nobody.
Saturday at Crypto.com Arena, Van fought Pantoja for 25 minutes and won a unanimous decision. That argument is over.
The Fight
Judges scored it 49-46, 48-47 and 50-45 for Van in the UFC 331 main event, the promotion’s first Los Angeles show since 2018. The 50-45 card drew criticism, which is fair, because Pantoja clearly won rounds.
Van out-landed the former champion 181 to 147 in significant strikes and 259 to 159 in total strikes. Pantoja went 5-of-18 on takedowns and accumulated more than nine minutes of control time without generating much offense from top position.
The decisive moment came in the fifth, when Van dropped Pantoja with a left hand. Referee Herb Dean also waved off a Pantoja complaint in the second after a head clash opened a cut.
Both men earned $100,000 Fight of the Night bonuses.
Van Said the Quiet Part
“A lot of people say that was an accident win the first time,” Van told Joe Rogan in the cage. “Now, doubt me now.”
He also laughed off a submission Pantoja escaped: “I usually, with that move, I get everybody in the gym, but I don’t know how the hell he got out of that.”
He Fought With a Torn Shoulder
At the post-fight press conference Van revealed something nobody knew going in.
“Coming into this fight after the press conference in Philly, I tore my AC joint in my right shoulder and I couldn’t even spar,” he said. “So, the last two weeks was my first time sparring, and this camp we did nothing but cardio.”
A champion who could not spar for most of camp just won a five-round decision on volume. That is a remarkable thing to admit after the fact.
What Van Has Become
Van is 24 and improves to 18-2 with an 11-1 UFC record and eight straight wins dating to September 2024. He was born in Hakha, Chin State, Myanmar, fled to Malaysia with his family at 10, and moved to Houston at 12.
He is the first Myanmar-born UFC fighter and became the second-youngest champion in promotion history at UFC 323, at 24 years and 57 days, behind only Jon Jones. He is also the first UFC champion born in the 2000s.
Pantoja Is Running Out of Time
Pantoja falls to 30-7 at 36 years old. These are the first back-to-back losses of his professional career.
He won the belt at UFC 290 in July 2023 and defended it four times against Brandon Royval, Steve Erceg, Kai Asakura and Kai Kara-France. He still holds UFC flyweight records for most wins, most submissions and most finishes.
In a strange footnote, disclosed purses show Pantoja earned $650,000 and Van $500,000 with no win bonus. The loser out-earned the champion.
Pantoja did not retire. He posted on Instagram thanking people for their support.
What Comes Next
Nothing is booked. Van made no callout and said he will fight whoever the UFC offers, and the shoulder makes a third defense in 2026 unlikely.
Manel Kape, ranked No. 2 with four straight finishes, called him out on social media the next day, saying Van is the perfect style for him to paint a masterpiece. That fight is speculation, not a booking.
Van will take it when it comes. He has stopped needing to explain himself.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.