MMA Junkie analyst Dan Tom goes in-depth to break down the biggest fights in the UFC. Today, he takes a closer look at UFC 331's main event between Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja.
Joshua Van UFC 331 preview
Staple info:
- Record: 17-2 MMA, 10-1 UFC
- Height: 5'5" Age: 24 Weight: 125 lbs. Reach: 65"
- Last fight: TKO win over Tatsuro Taira (May 9, 2026)
- Camp: 4 oz. Fight Club (Texas)
- Stance/striking style: Orthodox/kickboxing
- Risk management: Good
Supplemental info:
- + UFC flyweight champion
- + Regional MMA title
- + Amateur MMA accolades
- + Brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt
- + 9 KO victories
- + 2 submission wins
- + 3 first-round finishes
- + Building pace and pressure
- + Good boxing technique
- ^ Variates well to the body
- + Excellent instincts off the counter
- + Strong inside of the clinch
- ^ Works well off of overhooks and frames
- + Serviceable wrestling ability
- ^ Solid first-layer defense and offense
- + Steadily improving transitional grappling
- +/- 0-0 in career rematches
Alexandre Pantoja UFC 331 preview
Staple info:
- Record: 30-6 MMA, 14-4 UFC
- Height: 5'5" Age: 36 Weight: 125 lbs. Reach: 67.5"
- Last fight: Injury TKO loss to Joshua Van (Dec. 6, 2025)
- Camp: American Top Team (Florida)
- Stance/striking style: Orthodox/muay Thai
- Risk management: Good
Supplemental info:
- + Former UFC flyweight champion
- + Regional MMA titles
- + Amateur muay Thai accolades
- + Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt
- + 8 KO victories
- + 12 submission wins
- + 10 first-round finishes
- + KO power
- + Aggressive pace and pressure
- + Counters well in combination
- + Hard leg kicks
- + Solid clinch fighter
- ^ Good knees and strikes off the breaks
- + Underrated wrestling ability
- + Superb transitional grappler
- ^ Slick submissions, good ground-and-pound
- +/- 4-0 in career rematches
Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 breakdown: Striking the second time around?
The main event for UFC 331 features a rematch for the men’s flyweight title between Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja.
Their first fight, which took place in December of last year, ended ignominiously when Pantoja sustained a freak arm injury in the first 30 seconds of the contest. Although Van hates anyone detracting from his title-winning effort, he’ll have ample opportunity to shut his haters up this Saturday if he can successfully out-strike and outfight a dangerous former champion.
As his nickname “The
Cannibal” would suggest, Pantoja made his name as an offensive marauder who isn’t afraid to shed blood in order to feed himself.
An inherent pressure fighter, Pantoja is typically at his best when coming forward and looking to corrall opposition toward the cage. Although Pantoja’s technique and defense can sometimes leave some room to be desired, the Brazilian bruiser can flow through offensive phases like second nature and counters well in combination.
In fact, Pantoja has quietly developed his leg kicks and counter-striking savvy in his latter years, which, in turn, gives him both more breathing room and options to operate from on the feet.
Demonstrating excellent instincts in the clinch, Pantoja has a good feel for body knees and strikes off the break. However, despite owning one of the most proven chins in MMA, Pantoja will need to respect the pocket potency of Van.
Despite only fighting professionally for roughly five years, Van demonstrates a natural aptitude for striking that is undeniable.
More of a boxing-centric striker who likes to counter in combination, Van does well at varying both his looks and levels when mixing up his shot selection. And once Van is feeling in stride, the native of Myanmar is not shy when it comes to ripping hooks to the body.
As we were reminded in Van’s last fight opposite Tatsuro Taira, the current champ has a knack for drawing out jabs and other straight shots that allow him opportunities to counter.
The Joshua Van favorite: Using the jab to draw out opportunities for counterpunching. pic.twitter.com/nDCywrRiYH
— Dan A. (@TypewritingDA) September 17, 2026
In the clinch, Van shows a good feel for striking off frames in the form of knees and punches. Van is also an underrated kicker who can get creative with his attacks, but I’m not sure how much of his kicking offense will get shelved given the looming takedown threats coming his way.
Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 point of interest: Protect your neck
Given the biggest on-paper disparity between these two, protecting the neck will be paramount for the current champion this weekend.
Thankfully for Van, his natural aptitude for fighting extends to his ground game as well.
An athlete with excellent instincts, Van looks to have some solid first-layer offense and defense in the wrestling department. “The Fearless” displays hips that are hardwired to sprawl in the open, and he can also wrestle fairly well off a whizzer – which will probably be his best friend opposite a back-taker like Pantoja.
Although Van is not beyond getting bested against the cage, said over and underhook awareness, in conjunction with his athleticism, has made it hard for most fighters to control him thus far. In his last fight opposite Taira, Van showed some solid glimpses of technical improvements, particularly in the way in which he fought hands and wrestled up off of underhooks and butterflies (which made it difficult for Taira to control him).
This sort of approach will also serve Van well against another back-taking phenom like Pantoja on paper, but I’d respectfully argue that “The Cannibal” will be the best grappler that “The Fearless” has faced so far.
Firmly ranked in my Top 10 rear-naked choke artists in UFC history list, Pantoja is one of those “game over” level of elite grapplers I often reference in my breakdowns.
Despite not officially working on his wrestling until teaming up with Henry Cejudo post-“TUF,” Pantoja has always been a dangerous threat from the bodylock and has since further sharpened his takedown shots since moving shop to American Top Team in South Florida.
Building on his previously mentioned clinch striking, Pantoja is quick to lock his hands around his opposition and shuck them off to a side whenever possible, smartly changing the angles and approaches to his attacks.
Displaying good cage awareness, Pantoja wastes little time when it comes to wedging himself in between the fence and the back of his opposition. And once Pantoja is able to get the slightest bite on a position, the Shooto Brazil vet will jump at the opportunity to shift the fight’s dynamic through back takes that range from traditional attacks to crab sits alike.
In victory or defeat, you will also seldom see anyone get to Pantoja’s back for prolonged periods or put him in precarious submission threats. In fact, the 18-year pro has a knack for turning negative positions around through his superb legwork and scrambling ability.
Forgot how good the legwork was between Pantoja and Royval throughout the initial minutes of the 1st round… the leg lock attempt/entanglement from Royval is fun, but man do I appreciate what Pantoja is trying to do prior with influential insteps and vines as he goes for the back pic.twitter.com/yNnwqvBPtc
— Dan Tom (@DanTomMMA) January 13, 2022
Pantoja, who has incredible transitional instincts and chair sits, will have an edge when it comes to finding the back. And if Pantoja ends up on top, the American Top Team rep has some fantastic ground striking that’s not talked about enough.
Like a snake striking its prey on the Nature Channel, Pantoja possesses incredible accuracy and pop to the punches that slightly arc around his opponent’s guard.
Alexandre Pantoja ground-and-pound 🤌 pic.twitter.com/2zBacuyt9I
— Dan Tom (@DanTomMMA) July 5, 2023
Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 odds
Despite the oddsmakers opening the Brazilian fighter as the favorite, public money has flipped the betting lines in the favor of the younger man, listing Van -134 and Pantoja +110 via FanDuel.
Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 prediction, pick
Between the deserved hype for Van’s skills and MMA bettors exercising their favorite pastime of fading older fighters, seeing Pantoja listed at plus money comes as no shock here. And considering this space’s propensity to reward the current Zoomers of our time, no part of me will be surprised to see Van’s disrespectful trash talk rewarded with a violent victory that gives Pantoja fans PTSD for the remainder of their MMA fandom.
Aside from being the more youthful and durable product who is dangerous on the feet, Van fights with a building pace and pressure that could deny Pantoja his needed pockets to recoup (à la the pacing dynamic in the Max Holloway-Jose Aldo series). Should Van survive the early scares that are likely coming his way, then he’ll probably start to steadily steal the steering wheel of this fight in the second frame.
But my admitted admiration for Pantoja aside, I genuinely believe that the former champ is a live dog in this fight.
Aside from having tools like leg kicks and same-side attacks that could serve him well on the feet, Pantoja has an elite transition game that still doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Not only is Pantoja a higher-rated back-taker than anyone that Van has faced thus far, but I’m willing to bet that the Brazilian has better positional and transitional answers than Taira did should he achieve the same positions.
Taira is more of a mount specialist who looked to lack ideas from the front headlocks that Van’s getup style was giving to him (e.g. looking to his corner for advice/giving needless resets followed by literally offering his head to Van which leaded to a KD that shifted momentum): pic.twitter.com/hBnM5leo07
— Dan Tom (@DanTomMMA) September 18, 2026
As seen in the clip linked above, Taira was cruising to a 2-0 start against Van until getting the depth of his game was exposed by Van’s getups, which then led to needless resets that allowed Van to immediately sway the rounds his way with strikes. Say what you will about Pantoja and the terrible optics in his game (which is what I believe leads to both the analysis and calls of his fights being so unfair to him), but the man is a fluent phase changer who actually sets up his shots with strikes and strikes when grappling on the ground.
Whereas Taira, who is ultimately still developing his game, was giving Van plenty to counter off of with his rote jab and dip entries. Van can counter and probably will counter Pantoja as well, but the Brazilian does a much better job of throwing change-ups from rear-handed leads to levering punches and same-side attacks.
Although I correctly called out Van’s butterfly guard as a key tactic for him ahead of his last fight, the battle between his whizzers and hand-fighting vs. Pantoja’s shuck-bys in the clinch will probably be the deciding junction in this bout.
Pantoja out here proving again that we largely give attn to the wrong fighters in this sport…
— Dan Tom (@DanTomMMA) November 26, 2025
Casuals to MMA media have overlooked him while the gambling side of the community loves to bet against him…
Meanwhile he’s literally 1 of the easiest to root for in & out of the cage https://t.co/kb9FoEN0vU
Regardless of the result, but especially if the former champ gets his belt back, I hope that the media, promotion and fans alike finally start stepping up their respect and praise for a deserved fighter like Pantoja (who, akin to other Brazilians who make it to the top, continuously gets snubbed in Fighter of the Year conversations). I also know that the MMA gambling community gets tumescent at the thought of an age gap involving an older fighter they can fade, but last time Van found himself on the right side of an 11-year age difference prior to his freakish win over Pantoja, he got knocked out.
Add in the fact that Pantoja is undefeated in career rematches at 4-0, and I can’t help but stick with the logic of the pick I made the first time around. I have Pantoja sticking it to the Zoomer crowd and betting bros alike by securing a second-round submission win.
Prediction: Pantoja inside the distance
Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 start time, how to watch
As the main event, Van and Pantoja are expected to make their walks to the octagon at approximately 11:10 p.m. ET. The fight streams on Paramount+.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 331: Can Joshua Van show first Alexandre Pantoja title fight no fluke?
