UFC 331 is simply 48 hours away, with the flyweight title on the road in the principle occasion. Joshua Van will face Alexandre Pantoja in a rematch following their weird first assembly at UFC 323. It has been 9 months because the two first met in December 2025, and their combat led to one of many strangest methods potential.
Pantoja misplaced his long-held flyweight title simply 26 seconds into the opening spherical after struggling a freak elbow harm following a clumsy fall. Van was out of the blue topped champion, however an apparent query remained over his reign: may he show that he really belonged on the high?
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Van answered that query at UFC 328. The 24-year-old, now the second-youngest champion in UFC historical past, put collectively a standout efficiency towards Tatsuro Taira, stopping the Japanese contender through fifth-round TKO. Nonetheless, many followers nonetheless imagine Pantoja will humble Van within the rematch, arguing that the Brazilian would have achieved so in December 2025 had he not suffered the harm.
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Alexander Volkanovski, nonetheless, sees issues in a different way. The reigning featherweight champion believes Van has what it takes to edge Pantoja within the rematch. His prediction comes after the 2 champions beforehand educated collectively.
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In a video on his YouTube channel, Volk stated, “I keep in mind once we had been in America, he [Van] needed to grapple with everybody. He needed to go there and get some grappling rounds; that was the entire level. He’d come and ask me questions.”
Followers have been reluctant to offer Van a lot of an opportunity on the bottom due to Pantoja’s elite grappling recreation. The Brazilian owns a 30-6 report with eight knockouts, 12 submissions and 10 selections. His 12 submission wins account for 40% of his skilled victories and spotlight simply how harmful he may be as soon as a combat hits the mat.
Nonetheless, Volkanovski believes Van has seemingly been engaged on his grappling, particularly given his pure want to continue learning. He added, “That is what I wish to see. Me realizing that, realizing that he is engaged on this stuff and already would have been working in these positions, however making an attempt to know the sport and why we’re doing this.”
Van enters the rematch with 75% takedown protection and a 61% takedown accuracy of his personal. He is not afraid to grapple when vital, however his precedence is often getting again to his ft moderately than accepting prolonged intervals on the bottom.
That was evident in his final outing, when Taira took him down eight instances from 21 makes an attempt and managed him for greater than 10 minutes. Towards Pantoja, nonetheless, Van can be going through arguably essentially the most harmful grappler he has encountered in UFC flyweight historical past.
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The large query now could be how a lot the champion has improved since that combat. If Van can neutralize Pantoja’s grappling risk, he may have a a lot completely different night time than many followers predict at UFC 331.