UFC 331 went down last Saturday night (Sept. 19, 2026) inside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif., leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Gable Steveson, who was knocked out in 12 seconds by Sean Sharaf (see it here).
And Mauricio Ruffy, who was also knocked out in the very first round thanks to Arman Tsarukyan’s razor-sharp elbows (highlights). But which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Coming into his much-anticipated rematch against current Flyweight champion, Joshua Van, Pantoja came in with a lot of animosity seeing as how he lost his strap in their first fight as a result of a freak injury just seconds into the fight. The tension had built up leading up to the rematch, as Pantoja was adamant he was the better fighter of the two.
Unfortunately for the Brazilian slugger, things went from bad to worse.
From the jump, Pantoja came out super-aggressive, taking it to Van as he was determined to be the one to dictate the pace. And he had success, too, taking Van down with his elite grappling skills just 10 seconds into the fight. Once on the feet, though, it was clear that Van had the huge advantage.
As the fight went on, the bout was pretty even, with Pantoja dominating the grappling exchanges, and Van winning the striking exchanges. That said, Pantoja started to get a bit too emotional for my liking, complaining of a headbutt that was clearly inadvertent, and then pushing forward a bit to overzealous. And it didn’t take long for his pace to catch up with him as he was clearly getting winded by the third round.
As Van got into his groove, his takedown defensest arted to come through for him as he repeatedly stuffed Pantoja’s takedown attempts. Once that started to happen, Van’s striking helped him take control. In round five, took it up another level and Pantoja simply couldn’t hang, as he was picked apart strike-by-strike.
In the end, the judges awarded Van a unanimous decision, though one of them clearly didn’t see the fight the same as the other two. Nevertheless, Van’s outstanding performance allowed him to keep his title and put Pantoja in the rear-view mirror for the foreseeable future.
For Pantoja, the loss is a crushing one to say the least as he has now lost two straight championship fights to the same man, which means getting another title fight will be hard to come by. Afterward, he channeled his inner-Rocky Balboa to express his sentiments from the result.
“’I’ll tell you something you already know: The world is not a big rainbow. It’s a filthy place, it’s a cruel place. Who doesn’t care how tough you are. It’ll bring you to your knees and you’ll be on your knees forever if you let it,” he wrote on Instagram.
“You, me, no one will hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about hitting hard It’s all about how much you can take it and move forward. How much can you take and keep trying. That’s how you win. Now if you know your value, then go after what you deserve. Gotta be willing to catch tho And no pointing fingers, saying you can’t because of him or her or whoever. Only cowards do that.’ – Rocky Balboa.
“Thank you all for your kind words and support as always,” Pantoja concluded.
As far as what could be next for Pantoja, perhaps a fight against Tatsuro Taira is in order. Like Panotja, Taira’s last defeat came at the hands of Van, which was the champ’s first successful title defense. Taira is ranked No. 4 in the division and would love nothing more than to climb his way back to another title fight, especially a rematch against Van, who stopped him in the fifth and final round (see it again here).