What Joshua Van’s UFC 331 Win Over Alexandre Pantoja Actually Settled

Joshua Van defeated Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision at Crypto.com UFC 331 and retained the UFC flyweight championship. The important detail is that this was a completed five-round result, not another injury-shortened meeting.

The result is clear, but the margins were not identical

The official UFC results list Van’s win by unanimous decision, with scorecards of 49–46, 48–47 and 50–45.

That means all three judges selected Van, while their scorecards did not describe the fight in exactly the same way. The careful conclusion is therefore narrower than saying every round was viewed identically: Van won the title fight on all three cards and kept the championship.

Why the rematch answers a different question

The UFC’s official preview of the rematch says the first meeting ended 26 seconds into the opening round after Pantoja suffered an elbow injury. That result established an outcome, but it did not show how the two fighters would perform against each other over a full contest.

The rematch supplies that missing context: five rounds were completed and the judges reached a unanimous decision. This makes the rivalry easier to assess on the specific question of who won a full title fight. It does not, by itself, establish a future challenger or a wider claim about Van’s standing beyond this bout.

What the official India listing showed

For viewers in India, UFC’s official viewing guide listed the prelims at 4:30 a.m. IST and the main card at 6:30 a.m. IST on Sunday, 20 September 2026. It listed Sony TEN 2 as the channel.

So the defensible takeaway is precise: Joshua Van won the rematch by unanimous decision and retained the UFC flyweight championship. Its significance lies in replacing an injury-shortened first meeting with a completed five-round decision—not in claims about the next fight or a broader ranking that the official result does not make.