Anyone who doubted the abilities of Joshua Van after his first fight with Alexandre Pantoja can no longer deny him. Van defeated Pantoja in their flyweight championship rematch that main evented UFC 331 in Los Angeles.
“Shout out to Pantoja, nothing but respect from me,” Van said. “I don’t know how the f*** he got out of that submission.”
Right off the bat, Pantoja got a body lock and scored a takedown on Van. After a few minutes of control, Pantoja landed some ground strikes before Van exploded and was able to reverse position.
Pantoja looked for a triangle submission from the bottom, but Van got out of it, with the two trading plenty in the last couple of minutes of round one. Van landed a strong elbow on Pantoja, as well as a strong left hook, but Pantoja scored another takedown before the round’s end.
The second round was paused early when Pantoja was cut by an accidental head clash, though Pantoja protested Van did it on purpose. An emotional Pantoja looked to drive Van back to the mat, but Van held his ground and looked to land the better strikes during the frame. Pantoja got Van to the ground and got to his back, looking for a choke, but the time expired before the opportunity was found.
The third round featured plenty of exchanging from the two men, as the two battled in close and traded a lot of strikes. A right hand appeared to land late in the round that wobbled Pantoja, but Pantoja came back out in the fourth and answered with an impressive side kick.
Pantoja used his striking to score a takedown in the fourth round, completely smothering Van’s efforts to get up and dominating the round with top control. While the judges would disagree, several in the MMA community had it 2-2 heading into the fifth and final round.
Pantoja came out with a kick-heavy offense to start round five, while Van looked to catch Pantoja coming in. A couple of minutes into the round, Van really let his hands go, landing a solid left counter and a combination that caught Pantoja flush. Van piled up combinations, and Pantoja appeared to be rocked halfway through round five.
Then, an overhand right dropped Pantoja. Van followed him to the ground, passing into side control and looking for a kimura. Pantoja escaped it, but Van continued to pound away with his strikes. Pantoja looked to bring the fight back to the ground, but Van smothered him with control as he looked to submit the former champion.
All the judges scored the bout for Van.
Van has now won eight straight since his loss to Charles Johnson, his sole loss in the UFC and just one of two losses he has in MMA.
This marked Van’s second title defense. He defeated Tatsuro Taira in another highly entertaining bout to retain at UFC 328 in May.
