UFC 331 live blog: Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2

UFC 331 on September 19 featured Joshua Van defending his flyweight title against Alexandre Pantoja in a rematch at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Van claimed the belt in stunning fashion at UFC 323 when Pantoja suffered an arm injury just 26 seconds into their first contest. The 24-year-old Van, the second-youngest champion in UFC history behind Jon Jones, made his first title defense at UFC 328 with a fifth-round knockout of Tatsuro Taira. Pantoja (30–6) was on a dominant championship run before losing to Van, having earned a split decision over Brandon Moreno to capture the belt and successfully defended it four consecutive times against Kai Kara-France, Kai Asakura, Steve Erceg, and Brandon Royval. The former champion ranks in the top five of the MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings. Herb Dean officiated the championship main event as the two fighters sought to settle their rivalry decisively after their first meeting's controversial ending.