Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja have some unfinished business.
The two flyweights meet again in the UFC 331 main event on Saturday 19 September 2026, with Van defending the 125lb title at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Their first meeting lasted only 26 seconds after Pantoja suffered a freak elbow injury, so this is less a sequel and more the fight we were supposed to get the first time around.
There is plenty underneath it too. Arman Tsarukyan faces Mauricio Ruffy over five rounds in a huge lightweight co-main event, while Patricio Pitbull, Brian Ortega, Renato Moicano, Marlon Vera and Tai Tuivasa all feature on the UFC 331 card.
UK fans will need another late one. The UFC 331 main card starts at 2am BST on Sunday 20 September, following the prelims from midnight.
If you are looking beyond Los Angeles, our regularly updated next UFC event guide covers the upcoming schedule and UK start times throughout 2026.
When Is UFC 331?
UFC 331 takes place on Saturday 19 September 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
Because of the time difference, the main card will actually begin during the early hours of Sunday 20 September for viewers in the UK.
The key details are:
- Event: UFC 331: Van vs Pantoja 2
- US date: Saturday 19 September 2026
- UK date: Saturday 19 September into Sunday 20 September
- Venue: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles
- Early prelims: 10pm BST
- Prelims: 12am BST
- Main card: 2am BST
- Main event: Later in the main card, likely around 4am BST depending on earlier results
The UFC currently lists the early prelims for 5pm ET, prelims for 7pm ET and the five-fight main card from 9pm ET.
So yes, coffee might be required.
UFC 331 Full Fight Card
The current UFC 331 card contains 13 fights, with five on the main card and eight across the prelims.
UFC 331 Main Card
- Joshua Van vs Alexandre Pantoja 2 – UFC Flyweight Championship
- Arman Tsarukyan vs Mauricio Ruffy – Lightweight
- Patricio Pitbull vs Dooho Choi – Featherweight
- Renato Moicano vs Brian Ortega – Lightweight
- Alonzo Menifield vs Iwo Baraniewski – Light heavyweight
UFC 331 Prelims
- Gable Steveson vs Sean Sharaf – Heavyweight
- Marlon Vera vs Charles Jourdain – Bantamweight
- Tai Tuivasa vs Robelis Despaigne – Heavyweight
- Edmen Shahbazyan vs Brunno Ferreira – Middleweight
- Giga Chikadze vs Joanderson Brito – Featherweight
- Casey O’Neill vs Eduarda Moura – Women’s flyweight
- Ryan Gandra vs Ozzy Diaz – Middleweight
- Michael Aswell Jr vs JooSang Yoo – Featherweight
As always with UFC events, the card and bout order can change before fight night.
UFC 331 Main Event: Joshua Van vs Alexandre Pantoja 2
There is a reason the UFC wasted little time booking this again.
Joshua Van technically beat Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323 in December 2025, but nobody really got an answer to the sporting question.
Just 26 seconds into the opening round, Pantoja landed awkwardly and suffered an elbow injury. The fight was waved off, Van became champion and Pantoja’s title reign ended in one of the strangest ways imaginable. It remains one of the fastest finishes ever recorded in the UFC flyweight division. Van has done plenty since then to prove he belongs at the top.
The 24-year-old defended the belt against Tatsuro Taira at UFC 328 in May and stopped him in the fifth round after a superb fight. He now holds a 17-2 professional record, with nine victories by knockout. Pantoja is a very different problem.
Before the injury loss, the Brazilian had put together an eight-fight winning streak and four successful title defences. Brandon Royval, Steve Erceg, Kai Asakura and Kai Kara-France all tried to take the belt from him and failed.
His record stands at 30-6, with 12 submission victories and eight by knockout. UFC’s own statistics also give Pantoja the most wins and most finishes in the history of its flyweight division.
At 36, however, there is an obvious question hanging over him.Has anything changed?
Van is young, ridiculously active and still developing. Pantoja has the deeper championship experience and a grappling game that can make life horrible for almost anyone at 125lb. This time, hopefully, we actually get to find out who is better.
For where both men sit among the division’s leading contenders, our UFC rankings 2026 page tracks every weight class and the pound-for-pound picture.
Joshua Van vs Alexandre Pantoja Odds
There is very little between them in the early UFC 331 betting.
Van is the slight favourite in the current market, but Pantoja is close enough that this is effectively being priced as one of the most competitive title fights on the schedule. That makes sense.
Van has youth, speed, volume and the momentum of his victory over Taira. Pantoja brings years of elite-level experience and remains one of the best submission threats in the division.
The first fight provides almost nothing useful from a betting perspective either. Twenty-six seconds and an injury tells us very little about how their styles interact over five rounds.
At the time of writing, the market remains close, and prices may move considerably as fight week approaches. You can check the latest Van vs Pantoja prices and markets through BetVictor’s UFC betting odds. BetVictor already has UFC 331 listed among its upcoming competitions.
Arman Tsarukyan vs Mauricio Ruffy
The main event has the belt, but this might be the fight with bigger consequences for one of the UFC’s deepest divisions.
Arman Tsarukyan faces Mauricio Ruffy in a five-round lightweight co-main event.
Tsarukyan is currently the No.2-ranked lightweight and enters with a 23-3 professional record. More importantly, he has won five straight.
That run includes Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush and Dan Hooker. Tsarukyan submitted Hooker in the second round of his most recent UFC appearance in November 2025. It has been a frustrating wait since.
Tsarukyan has been hovering around the title conversation without actually getting his hands on the belt. Beating another dangerous contender over five rounds would make it extremely difficult to keep him away from the championship picture. Ruffy is not being brought in to make that easy.
The Brazilian is 14-2 with a frankly silly finishing record. Thirteen of his 14 professional victories have come by knockout, including a highlight-reel finish of Michael Chandler at UFC Freedom 250 in June. Nine of those finishes came in the first round.
That gives us a fairly obvious clash. Tsarukyan wants control, wrestling exchanges and positions where he can dictate the fight.
Ruffy would presumably rather remove all of that complexity by hitting him very hard. Sometimes MMA really is that simple.
Could the UFC 331 Co-Main Winner Get a Title Shot?
Potentially. Nothing has been officially guaranteed, but it is hard to imagine the winner being far away.
Justin Gaethje currently holds the lightweight championship, with Ilia Topuria still ranked first and Tsarukyan second in the current divisional picture. Mauricio Ruffy has climbed to seventh following his knockout of Chandler.
If Tsarukyan wins, six consecutive victories with Oliveira, Hooker and Ruffy among them would make a serious case.
If Ruffy knocks out the No.2 contender after doing the same to Michael Chandler, his rise becomes considerably harder to dismiss.
Lightweight never stays sensible for very long, so trying to predict the exact title queue several months in advance is dangerous. Still, this fight matters. A lot.
Patricio Pitbull vs Dooho Choi
There is another fascinating fight sitting just below the co-main event. Patricio Pitbull faces Dooho Choi at featherweight.
Pitbull arrived in the UFC with one of the best records ever assembled outside the promotion, but life inside the Octagon has been mixed. He has lost two of his first three UFC appearances and now finds himself needing a result against a man moving in the opposite direction. Choi has won three straight.
That makes this much more than a veteran name being added to the card. Pitbull needs to prove he can still compete with dangerous UFC featherweights, while Choi has an opportunity to add the biggest name of his current run.
Renato Moicano vs Brian Ortega
Renato Moicano and Brian Ortega will also finally get their fight.
The pair were previously scheduled to meet before Ortega withdrew, but UFC 331 gives them another date, this time at lightweight. There is history here too.
Moicano and Ortega first fought all the way back at UFC 214 in 2017, when Ortega submitted the Brazilian in the third round. Nearly a decade later, they are doing it again.
Both men have spent years operating around the upper levels of the UFC, both are dangerous on the ground and neither particularly needs convincing to get involved in a scramble.
For newer fans wondering why the divisions move in 10 or 15lb jumps, BetVictor’s guide to UFC weight classes explains every current limit from strawweight through heavyweight.
Other Fighters to Watch at UFC 331
The prelims have considerably more name value than you would normally expect this far from fight night.
Gable Steveson continues his MMA career against Sean Sharaf at heavyweight. The Olympic wrestling champion remains one of the more intriguing prospects in the sport simply because of how high his wrestling ceiling is.
Then there is Marlon Vera against Charles Jourdain. Vera has spent years mixing with top bantamweights and remains ranked in the division. Heavyweight brings the complete opposite sort of entertainment.
Tai Tuivasa vs Robelis Despaigne has all the ingredients of a fight where looking away for five seconds could be a fairly poor decision.
Despaigne carries enormous physical power, while Tuivasa has never exactly built his career around cautious point fighting.
The card also features Edmen Shahbazyan, Giga Chikadze, Joanderson Brito and Casey O’Neill. It is a deep one.
What Time Is UFC 331 in the UK?
UFC 331 begins on Saturday evening in the UK and carries on well into Sunday morning.
The current schedule is:
- Early prelims: 10pm BST, Saturday 19 September
- Prelims: 12am BST, Sunday 20 September
- Main card: 2am BST
- Van vs Pantoja 2: Expected later in the main card, likely around 4am BST
That last time is only an estimate.
UFC main events do not have fixed walkout times in the same way a football match has a fixed kick-off. Five quick finishes beforehand could bring Van and Pantoja forward. Five decisions could send the night the other way.
The confirmed time to work around is 2am BST for the UFC 331 main card.
How to Watch UFC 331 in the UK
TNT Sports remains the UK home of UFC in 2026, with HBO Max now used for TNT Sports streaming after replacing discovery+ earlier this year.
UFC 331 is a numbered event, so UK viewers should check the final TNT Sports listings closer to fight night to confirm whether the main card sits on a standard TNT Sports channel or is selected for TNT Sports Box Office. The early prelims of numbered events can also feature on UFC Fight Pass.
If that sounds needlessly complicated, our full how to watch UFC in the UK guide explains TNT Sports, HBO Max, Box Office and Fight Pass in one place.
UFC 331 Betting Markets
Fight-winner odds are only the beginning once a numbered card gets closer.
Common UFC betting markets include:
- Fight winner
- Method of victory
- Round betting
- Total rounds
- Fight to go the distance
- Winning method and round
- Live in-play betting
UFC 331 gives those markets plenty to work with.
Van and Pantoja could produce a very different fight depending on whether the champion can keep exchanges standing or Pantoja gets prolonged grappling opportunities.
Tsarukyan vs Ruffy is even more obvious stylistically. One man has built his reputation around an elite all-round game with serious wrestling. The other has knocked out 13 professional opponents.
Then you reach Tuivasa vs Despaigne.
Nobody needs a spreadsheet to understand why method-of-victory markets might attract attention there.
Odds will continue to change as the event gets closer, particularly after fight-week media, weigh-ins and the final face-offs.
Is UFC 331 Worth Staying Up For?
On paper, yes. Van vs Pantoja 2 needs a proper ending after their first fight barely got started. Tsarukyan vs Ruffy could reshape the lightweight title picture.
Pitbull vs Choi has consequences for both men. Moicano vs Ortega has nearly a decade of history behind it. And the prelims contain enough recognisable names that this does not feel like a card where you simply switch on for the headliner.
The only bad news for British fans is the clock. Early prelims begin at 10pm BST, the prelims follow at midnight and the UFC 331 main card starts at 2am on Sunday 20 September.
From there, it is Van and Pantoja’s turn to finish what they started. For results once the Octagon door closes in Los Angeles, BetVictor’s UFC results 2026 page tracks the latest winners, methods and major results throughout the year.
