Joshua Van won the UFC flyweight title from Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323 on December 6, 2025, and the fight lasted 26 seconds. Pantoja was injured as he fell to the canvas, could not continue, and it went into the books as a TKO. That non-result is the entire reason UFC 331 exists.
| The first fight | Detail |
|---|---|
| Event and date | UFC 323, December 6, 2025, T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas |
| Official result | Joshua Van def. Alexandre Pantoja, TKO by injury, 26 seconds of round one |
| How it ended | Pantoja threw a head kick, Van caught it, Pantoja tumbled to the canvas and came up unable to continue |
| The injury | Dana White said shoulder at the post-fight press conference and mentioned an MRI. Pantoja’s team clarified the next day that it was an elbow |
| What was landed | Effectively nothing. Neither man had time to do damage |
| What Van said | That he did not know what had happened, only that Pantoja had stopped |
| What it ended for Pantoja | His first loss in more than five years, and a reign that had him in best-flyweight-ever conversations |
| What it made Van | Second-youngest champion in UFC history and the first champion born in the 2000s |
| Then vs. now | Joshua Van | Alexandre Pantoja |
|---|---|---|
| Age | 24 | 36 |
| Record | 17-2 | 30-6 |
| Title history | Champion since Dec 2025, one defense | Won the belt from Brandon Moreno at UFC 290, defended it four times |
| Defenses | Beat Tatsuro Taira in May, stoppage in the final round | Royval, Steve Erceg, Kai Asakura, Kai Kara-France |
| The rematch | UFC 331 main event, Sept 19, Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles | Nine months after the first meeting |
Why the Rematch Was Inevitable
Pantoja was in the middle of one of the best runs in flyweight history when it happened. He had taken the belt from Brandon Moreno and defended it four times, to the point that he was entering conversations about the best flyweight ever alongside Demetrious Johnson. Losing it without a meaningful exchange left the division unresolved and left Van, through no fault of his own, as a champion with an asterisk in a lot of minds. He did most of the work removing it in May, taking a genuinely hard first defense against Tatsuro Taira and stopping him in the final round. What that did not answer is what happens when these two actually fight for twenty five minutes, which is the only question UFC 331 is being asked to settle. Background on the champion is in our Joshua Van profile, and the official fight record is at UFC.com.
The Bottom Line
The first fight ended in 26 seconds when Pantoja was hurt after Van caught a head kick and Pantoja fell. Dana White initially said shoulder, his camp said elbow. Nothing was settled in the cage, which is why they run it back.