UFC 331 Results 2026: Van Retains, Tsarukyan KOs Ruffy

Joshua Van retained the UFC flyweight championship over Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 50-45) Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, and in the co-main, Arman Tsarukyan needed 4 minutes 56 seconds to knock out Mauricio Ruffy and call out lightweight champion Justin Gaethje on the spot. The UFC 331 results 2026 card closes the book on the fastest title fight in company history and opens a new one on who fights for the 155-pound belt next.

UFC 331 results: Van finally got 15 minutes with Pantoja, and used all of them

The first Van-Pantoja meeting lasted 26 seconds before Pantoja dislocated his elbow at UFC 323 in December 2025. This one went the distance. Per UFC.com's official results, judges scored it 49-46, 48-47 and 50-45, a lopsided verdict that ended any question about whether Van's first title reign was a fluke of injury timing rather than a fight actually settled in the cage.

It is Van's second successful defense, following his fifth-round finish of Tatsuro Taira in May, and it came against a former champion UFC still credits with the most wins and submissions in promotional flyweight history. Per UFC.com, Van is 17-2 overall and has won 15 of his last 16, the only blemish since 2024 a knockout loss to Charles Johnson; at 24 years and 57 days when he first won the belt, UFC lists him as the second-youngest champion in company history behind Jon Jones. Pantoja, 36, now has to decide whether a second crack at Van is still in front of him or whether the division has moved past him.

Tsarukyan ends the fight and starts the campaign

The co-main did not go 15 seconds past the midpoint of round one. Per ESPN's fight recap, Tsarukyan dropped Ruffy with a left elbow to the face, followed him down and finished with a right elbow at 4:56 of round one, his sixth straight win. He signaled for a championship belt before he left the cage.

Dana White, who had been publicly lukewarm on Tsarukyan after two passed-over title opportunities in 2025, changed his tone within hours. "Arman made mistakes, and he has made up for them," White told reporters, adding Tsarukyan "could not have had a better comeback after the things that he had done," per Yahoo Sports. Tsarukyan was direct about what comes next: "He is fighting me next," he said of Gaethje, adding a timeline of his own, roughly mid-to-late December once he takes a week off and resumes training.

The complication is Gaethje. The champion has said he does not plan to compete again until sometime in 2027, and White told reporters after the card he has not yet had that conversation with him. Tsarukyan's read on the delay was blunt: "Justin Gaethje never says my name, so he is scared," he said, adding that if Gaethje will not fight him, "he has got to give that title for the young guys." Nothing is booked. An interim title or a Gaethje bout in early 2027 are both live outcomes, and neither has a date attached yet.

Betting impact: the market read the main event correctly, the co-main is where money was left on the table

The line move into fight week was the story before the fight even started. Pantoja opened as a -120 favorite over Van on Aug. 5, per DraftKings Network. By fight day, BetOnline's board had Van the -132 favorite to Pantoja's +113, per LegalSportsBetting. The market spent six weeks moving a reigning champion from underdog to favorite in his own title defense, and the result backed that read: Van won on all three scorecards, with margins as tight as one point (48-47) and as wide as five (50-45).

Tsarukyan closed at -350 over Ruffy's +284, per LegalSportsBetting's fight-week board, and that price still undersold him. A -350 favorite finishing in the first round is a good outcome for anyone who bet him straight, but the real value was in how he won. Per DraftKings Network's preview, Ruffy carried a four-inch height and three-inch reach edge and was the more accurate volume striker on paper, while Tsarukyan's path was supposed to run through his 3.26 takedowns per 15 minutes. He finished on the feet instead. BetOnline's only posted round total was 4.5 for the main event, over priced at +145; no book in the cache posted one for the co-main, which never reached the second round anyway.

For DFS, DraftKings salaries had Tsarukyan at $9,100 as the card's top play and Pantoja at $7,900 as the listed value option. Neither salary predicted the outcome. Pantoja lasted all five rounds and scored on volume, while Tsarukyan's $9,100 price tag paid off in under five minutes, the kind of ceiling outcome a "stud" salary is supposed to buy.

What to watch next

The lightweight division now waits on Gaethje. A bout agreement, any interim-title talk from the promotion, or Gaethje publicly setting a 2027 return date would all be the next re-point for this page. On the flyweight side, watch whether Pantoja gets an immediate rematch rebooked or whether the next challenger comes from elsewhere in the top five. For the full breakdown of what Tsarukyan's win means for the interim-title math and the earliest realistic date he fights again, see our Tsarukyan next-fight odds piece.

Model output on the rest of the UFC calendar lives on the AI-driven sports picks hub, and Chad breaks down fights card by card as new matchups get booked.

FAQ

What were the UFC 331 results? Joshua Van defeated Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 50-45) to retain the flyweight title. Arman Tsarukyan knocked out Mauricio Ruffy at 4:56 of round one in the co-main.

Did Joshua Van retain his title at UFC 331? Yes. Van beat Pantoja on all three judges' scorecards, his second successful flyweight title defense.

How did Arman Tsarukyan beat Mauricio Ruffy? Tsarukyan finished Ruffy with a left elbow followed by a right elbow at 4:56 of round one, his sixth consecutive win, and called out lightweight champion Justin Gaethje afterward.

Is Arman Tsarukyan getting a title shot next? Nothing is booked. Tsarukyan said he wants to fight Gaethje as early as December, but Gaethje has said he does not plan to compete again until 2027, and UFC has not confirmed a next opponent or date for either man.

Chad AI tracks every fight on this card inside the StatSniper app.

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