UFC 331: Van vs Pantoja 2 - Sep 19 🇺🇸

[Egg Shen]

On 9/20/2026 at 9:37 PM, Dai said:

 

Back to Van/Pantoja, how good were rounds 1 to 3? Just an insane pace and non stop action. Would have been heading to a FOTY contender had it not been for R4 being a nothing round. We talked a little about father time with Pantoja, and it definitely wasnt the case in the first four rounds. However, maybe it was age catching up with him in R5, as his gas tank completely fell off a cliff, despite a fairly comfortable R4. Very bizarre how it felt within seconds that his tank was empty, with no gradual decline. Great fight, mind.

 

 

Yeah, I said previously I thought there may have been a 'changing of the guard' moment and that 5th round was it. I had 2-2 going into 5 but Van just ran away with it. He's gonna be come a very hard fighter to beat. He looked like he could have done 5 more rounds after the fight.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah that main event was class. You knew from when they fought the first time, there’s no way these two could produce a bad fight. It was always gonna be a belter. We were just robbed of it back in December. I’m glad they got to finally have that battle. I enjoyed every bit of it. That 50-45 was way off, in my opinion. Had it either 2-2 or 3-1 for Van going into the last round but no way did Pantoja get clean sweeped. Right man definitely won though.

Joshua Van is a special fighter. Only 24 years old and he just beat one of the best Flyweights ever. He needed this. Had he lost this fight, especially if it was a decisive loss, right or wrong, that first fight would’ve been chalked up as nothing more than a fluke. And his reign as champion would’ve been almost discounted. With this win he’s cemented himself and legitimised his championship status as undisputed. And it wasn’t like Pantoja came in looking washed up. Van didn’t beat a shot Pantoja. For most of the fight he looked a handful like he always did. Van just had answers throughout and in the end, whether it was youth coming into play what, he just held up better down the stretch conditioning-wise and he really put a stamp on the fight in that last round. He’s proven over his last two fights that he’s absolutely a champion level fighter. He finished Taira in the 5th and then here, despite not finding the finish, he seemed to step it up a notch in the 5th again. It’s mad when you think how young he is and how sudden his rise to the title was but it does seem like those ‘championship rounds’ are his best rounds. He seemed to find another gear in the 5th here and that’s scary considering the pace him and Pantoja were going at in the early rounds.

Interesting times ahead. It’s gotta be Manel Kape next. That’s a great fight if Kape shows up. I hope they get a good backup on standby just in case though because Kape pulls out a lot. If it happens though, I can see it being wildly entertaining from the buildup to the fight itself. Skills-wise I like Van to win that one but Kape does have the kind of power that could make it interesting. Not sure what Pantoja does. Maybe they do him against Taira or something?

It’s crazy to think, it wasn’t that long ago Van was getting knocked out by Charles Johnson. That was July 2024. He always had potential but you never would’ve predicted at that point that he’d be where he is now just two years later. And it’s because he just got straight back on the horse and stayed active. He’s gone 8-0 since that loss. And looking back, his decision to stay so busy in 2024 and 2025 (he fought four times both years) is what led to this. It was him staying active and sharp which enabled him to step in against Royval on short notice last summer. And that win is what catapulted him into that unlikely first shot at Pantoja.

I will say though, my one big concern with Van is that he gets hit a lot. It’s part of what makes his fights so exciting to watch but it’s a style that isn’t gonna do him any favours long term. I already thought he took a bit too much damage in fights, then I saw this…

Yeah, not great. Since the incredible performance on Saturday night I keep seeing people saying stuff like “Van’s only 24, he hasn’t even hit his prime yet.” But I always say it, ‘prime’ isn’t all about age and it doesn’t hit at the same stage of every fighter’s career. Some peak early, some are late bloomers, some started younger etc. The example I always use is BJ Penn and Daniel Cormier. They’re only three months apart in age, yet their primes were nowhere near each other’s. I really hope I’m wrong but, unless he tightens shit up defensively, Van looks like one of those fighters who’s gonna shine brightly for a short period of time and burn out early. The amount of times I see people, even MMA media guys, go ‘how old is (fighter)?, oh 28, he’s just entering his prime’. Like the number of years is all the matters. It’s case by case and you have to go beyond that. Miles on the clock in terms of hard fights, knockout losses, injuries, rough weight cuts etc is much more important than how many birthdays you’ve celebrated. Goes without saying I hope Van proves me wrong and goes on a lengthy successful reign now. He’s quality.

Tsarukyan vs Ruffy was eventful the short time it lasted. I’ll say this, I thought Ruffy was looking surprisingly good early. Yeah he tagged Tsarukyan on the feet but I mean his takedown defence and everything. Who knows how his defensive wrestling would’ve help up over a longer fight but it looked good early. Once Tsarukyan properly got hold of him though, it didn’t take long.

Beautiful finish. To Ruffy’s credit, Tsarukyan was still having trouble trying to take him down against the fence. But I guess he was so focused on defending the takedowns, it opened up the door for Tsarukyan to land those elbows up top and that was that. Right in the chaos of those dying seconds of the round as well. Rough loss for Ruffy but, as weird as it sounds considering he just got flattened in a round, I thought he definitely showed improvements. Seems like he’s on the right track. Tsarukyan’s a beast though. Crowd was reacting to him like a star as well in a way I don’t think we’ve seen before. I really hope they just bite the bullet and give him the title shot now. We don’t need to see Gaethje vs Topuria 2 yet. Give us Gaethje vs Tsarukyan and Topuria vs Pimblett. Dana definitely sounded more positive about Tsarukyan post-fight so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

It was nice to see Pitbull find a bit of that old form from his Bellator heyday. After his first few UFC fights I’d pretty much given up hope and kind of expected the Korean Superboy to beat him up a bit here. Best Pitbull’s looked in years.

Shame it came at the expense of Choi but it was cool to see this kind of performance from Pitbull. I don’t expect much to come from it, he’s still undeniably past his best. But hopefully he can have a few more performances like this before he calls it a day. Really can’t see him getting that Jean Silva fight he called for though. I wouldn’t mind seeing it but I think the UFC are trying to get Silva in the title mix so it felt like a wasted callout to me.

Again, the whole Sharaf vs Steveson thing was one of the best and most satisfying MMA hate watches ever. I’d said previously that Steveson looked sloppy and reckless in some of his early fights, there was always the feeling that somewhere down the road he’d be made to pay for that and would get spectacularly chinned. I don’t think anyone expected it to be at this early a stage in his career though.

Art. 

The whole fight week Sharaf was great. Publicly calling out Steveson for being a rapist to his face, then going in there as a huge underdog and knocking him out in 12 seconds? Sharaf owns him for life after that. It’s not the justice he should’ve got for his crime but it’s something. I hope his victim saw it and found some measure of satisfaction in it. It says it all about how universally disliked Steveson must be that Sharaf started speaking Arabic in his post-fight interview and the yank crowd actually didn’t even boo him.

We’ll see what happens now but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this is it from Gable in MMA now. This was such a humiliating fight week and loss for him, then the way he immediately just scurried off out of the cage like a sore loser, plus he’s got form for quitting when things aren’t going to his liking (like his NFL/WWE stints), it wouldn’t be a massive shock if he tucked his tail and fucked off again now would it? Piss off to Power Slap.

Seeing Jones in shambles cageside made the result even sweeter…

Ha!

MMA media’s had a mare with Steveson. Bunch of them have really showed their true colours. Supporting him going in and then kind of backtracking after he lost. Weasels. Helwani put out a tweet saying Gable “needs to be humbled”, and his hypocrisy was rightly called out because it wasn’t long ago he did a fucking documentary on him called ‘The Making Of A Superstar’. This was before he was even in the UFC. Hyping him up to silly levels then wondering why he’s not humble. That Alex Behunin fella did one of those fight week fluff pieces as well, his usual ‘Humanising Athletes’ thing where he asks fighters what their favourite food or colour is or some shite. He did one on Gable. How do you ‘humanise’ a rapist? He’s since deleted it. And this was the worst, that Nina…

“Don’t let anyone dim your light”. Imagine saying that to a sexual predator. A woman saying it as well. But then she’s all up Dana’s arse so she mustn’t give a shit when men abuse other women as long as she’s alright and still getting those media credentials. Bunch of vermin, the lot of them.

Anyway, back to the fight. I was happy both because Steveson got smashed but also to see Sharaf get the win. Whatever happens from here, I’ll always have a soft spot for him after this. Sadly I don’t think he’ll go on to do anything of note. After a moment like this, no doubt a lot of people are gonna get carried away now and start talking about him as if he might make some noise in the division. But there’s a reason he was chosen as Steveson’s opponent here. There’s a reason he was seen as a sacrificial lamb going in. He’s not very good. That’s what makes this win even more satisfying. Gable lost to a guy who was 0-2 in the UFC coming in and was finished both times. Had to laugh when Cormier said just after the KO, something like ‘Gable Steveson is in the UFC now fighting the best in the world’. We never even got to that stage! This was supposed to be the squash match phase of his career. The period where they just feed him bodies and fill up his highlight reel. He couldn’t even get over those hurdles.

Menifield vs Baraniewski going the distance was the second biggest shock of the night for me. Second by quite a distance compared to Sharaf wiping out the rapist but I was still surprised this even made it out of the first round, much less to the scorecards. Enjoyed it though. And the fight not ending violently certainly wasn’t because of a lack of effort by either man. Menifield getting the nod was a mild surprise to me. I felt like Baraniewski won the first two rounds myself but I admit the second was close enough that I didn’t have a problem with it going Menifield’s way. That fucking thumb and all! Christ…

Apparently that happened early in the fight as well. Next level toughness to go through another two rounds like that, against a slugger like Baraniewski. I’d have tapped (with my good hand) just at the sight of it if it happened to me. Oh and a random observation that I’m sure I’ve brought up before but Pat Barry has to be the most irritating cornerman in the game.

Chito Vera actually fought and look what happened. Crazy the things you can do when you try a bit.

Not sure what exactly happened to Jourdain at the end there waving it off. He’s said since that he lost his sight. Guessing broken orbital or something? Regardless, if he couldn’t see it’s understandable. Live to fight another day. Obviously this was a win Chito desperately needed to pull out of the bag. It wasn’t a perfect performance but I felt like he fought with a bit more urgency and it made for a more watchable fight than he’s had in a while and he snapped the four fight losing streak. At this stage in his career, I can’t see him going on some tear now. But hopefully he fights more like this from now on. I know he changed camps so maybe the change freshened him up a bit.

Despaigne vs Tuivasa was a strange one. Think I said somewhere in this thread that it was either gonna be a quick blowout or a snoozer. We almost got the former then it descended into the latter. Started off lively and Tai actually looked fired up for a change. He was really going for it, both got tagged. Then it just petered out into the typical blob fight we’ve come to expect out of this division. Despaigne wins but doesn’t really win, no-one won this bollocks, least of all the viewers. And Tuivasa loses for the EIGHTH time in a row! I’ve actually seen some cries of robbery. I lost interest in it by the second round to the point I can’t even say who should’ve won. Who even cares? No doubt they’ll give Tuivasa another fight though. He must have dodgy pictures of Dana with farm animals or something.

Ryan Gandra walloped Ozzy Diaz with no bother, as expected. Rogan compared Gandra’s wild swarming to when Francis Ngannou set about Rozenstruik and, as much as I like to disagree with Rogan, I did see the similarity.

I like his aggression and he’s now 3-0 in the UFC, all first round knockouts. But he’s yet to face anyone particularly good. Zach Reese is his best win to date and he’s nothing special. Jose Medina and now Diaz here are pure jobbers. Him calling out Adesanya post-fight was laughable. I get that Izzy’s looking like he’s on his last legs but that’s skipping several levels for Gandra. Not a realistic callout.

Casey O’Neill’s comeback and submission over Eduarda Moura was pretty sweet. Went from being caught in a choke herself to this in a matter of seconds…

Cool finish. Not something you’re likely to catch anyone good with but at this level, I guess you can get away with it. Style points for that transition though. The Maycee Barber callout after seemed fair but is Barber even awake yet. Has anyone seen or heard of her since Alexa Grasso zombiefied her in Seattle?

And Joanderson Brito made short work of Giga Chikadze in the curtain jerker. As soon as it hit the ground and Brito started landing punches, Chikadze looked fucked. Chikadze’s dropped right off a cliff the last few years. He’s never been the same since that beating from Calvin Kattar. 


Pretty fun show all in all. Belting main event, Tsarukyan made himself harder to pass over with the highlight reel finish and the main man…Sean Sharaf of all people, absolutely stole the show. Never thought I’d be saying that but there we are.

Edited Tuesday at 06:42 PM by wandshogun09