This is the UFC 331 live blog for Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja, the flyweight championship main event bout Saturday at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Van and Pantoja run it back after Van won the belt at UFC 323 this past December in shocking fashion when Pantoja suffered an arm injury just 26 seconds into the contest.
With Pantoja sidelined, Van (17-2) returned to action at UFC 328, where he scored a fifth-round knockout of Tatsuro Taira in a thriller to author his first title defense. At 24,
Van became the second-youngest champion in UFC history behind Jon Jones when he defeated Pantoja.
Pantoja (30-6) was on a dominant championship run before losing to Van. After earning a split nod over longtime rival Brandon Moreno to capture the belt, he successfully defended it four consecutive times, beating Kai Kara-France, Kai Asakura, Steve Erceg, and Brandon Royval. He is currently in the top 5 of the MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings.
Check out the UFC 331 live blog for Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 below.
