Following a chaotic and electric night of fights in UFC’s first event in downtown Los Angeles in eight years, there’s plenty to discuss about UFC 331 inside Crypto.com Arena. 

Joshua Van made the second defense of his flyweight title in the main event by holding off former champion Alexandre Pantoja in their thrilling five-round rematch. In the co-main event, Arman Tsarukyan made an incredibly strong case for a lightweight title shot by knocking out Mauricio Ruffy in the first round. 

Let’s take a closer look at the biggest takeaways from a memorable event in “The CIty of Angels.” 

1. Joshua Van has become as must-see TV as any fighter on the UFC roster

In just over three years as a UFC fighter, the 24-year-old Van has fought an incredible 12 times inside the Octagon and three of his last four appearances have been some of the flyweight division’s best fights of the modern era. Van’s rematch with Pantoja on Saturday was no different as the native of Myanmar took a massive step forward on his path to true stardom by headlining a huge event in Los Angeles and thrilling the crowd by winning a five-round slugfest. In a very short period of time, Van has proved that his fighting spirit might just be unmatched across the elite level of the sport, most importantly by how hard and fresh he continues to perform in the championship rounds when it matters the most. During his first title defense in May, Van made key mid-fight adjustments and surged late to finish Tatsuro Taira in Round 5 of an instant classic. And just like in his breakthrough decision win over Brandon Royval in 2025, which went on to earn fight of the year honors, Van scored an emphatic knockdown of Pantoja in the final round to leave no doubt on the scorecards. Considering their first fight ended after 26 seconds due to an injury and Pantoja fought their rematch at a breakneck pace in search of revenge, many a young champion would’ve folded in his shoes. But Van continues to prove he’s simply built different. 

2. Van has also clearly become one of the best fighters on the planet

After not getting the credit for his title victory just 10 months ago, Van’s performance in the rematch had so much more to do than him simply being durable and willing to push forward through the storm. Van showcased a continually evolving skillset by having an answer for everything thrown his way by Pantoja, the Brazilian legend who, at 36, still looked to be in pound-for-pound form. The crisp variety of Van’s boxing turned out to be the difference offensively as he routinely made Pantoja pay for coming forward with such reckless abandon. But Van’s markedly improved takedown defense, not to mention the grappling skills he showed against such a decorated black belt, which included a submission attempt by Van via kimura in the final round, looked to truly be world class. Yes, Van’s combination of elite stamina and durability deserve recognition. But he’s clearly also on his way to building a mastery of the technical side of the sport, just the same. And that’s a scary reality for the rest of the division. 

3. Arman Tsarukyan can simply no longer be denied at 155 pounds

The setting was kind of perfect. Some 20 months after he withdrew from a UFC 311 lightweight title shot — also in Los Angeles — due to injury on just 24 hours’ notice and was forced to take the long road back to contention, Tsarukyan made quite the statement with his brutal, first-round knockout of Mauricio Ruffy in the co-main event. Forget his days of sitting idle while firmly entrenched in the doghouse of UFC CEO and president Dana White. Tsarukyan was greeted by the crowd on Saturday as the superstar he has clearly become during his time away on social media. And by scoring his sixth straight win in such dominant fashion, it should bring to an end any talk of current 155-pound champion Justin Gaethje giving Ilia Topuria an immediate rematch following his dismantling of the former two-division titleholder in June. Tsarukyan has evolved into a dangerous and all-around fighter who has fully earned a second opportunity to compete for the crown. 

4. Gable Steveson’s stunning KO loss proved that experience still matters

For all of the fanfare that Steveson, a 2020 Olympic gold medalist and five-time NCAA All-American, had received in his transition to MMA, which included being labeled the outright future of the division, he had accrued just over nine minutes of actual fight time through four pro bouts, all of which ended in the first round. There’s simply no substitute for experience and having overcome legitimate in-cage adversity for a young fighter who was receiving the kind of marketing push that Steveson was as a generational athlete who just so happened to have the sport’s all-time greatest fighter, Jon Jones, in his corner. Steveson was installed as an astronomical -2400 betting favorite against Sean Sharaf, the former U.S. Marine who was stopped in both of his UFC fights heading in. Yet, we simply didn’t have the video evidence to prove that Steveson possessed all of the true fighting intangibles like a chin and cardio beyond one round. Against Sharaf, the stamina question wasn’t answered but some of the fears critics had of Steveson after his UFC debut in July when he absorbed more clean shots than expected, were certainly manifested. The +1100 underdog Sharaf unleashed the perfect combo just 12 seconds in that ended with a flush left hook and knocked Steveson cold in one of the biggest upsets, from a numerical standpoint, in the sport’s history. Steveson, who was heavily booed by the crowd and even criticized by UFC analyst Daniel Cormier on the broadcast for exiting the Octagon before Sharaf’s hand was raised, simply needs more time working on the fundamentals of the game after coming to MMA in 2025 following failed stints in WWE and the NFL. 

5. UFC 331 was a start-to-finish thrill ride of varying (and viral) moments

While the theatrical savagery of the main event and the stunning knockouts delivered by Tsarukyan and Sharaf dominated the headlines, Saturday’s card delivered in many other ways from the standpoint of storylines, highlight-reel moments and all things good, bad and ugly. Veterans Marlon Vera, in his third-round TKO of Charles Jourdain at bantamweight, and Patricio Pitbull, who stopped Dooho Choi with punches in Round 1, scored much-needed wins to put the kind of recent losing skids behind them that had critics questioning how much they had left. Light heavyweight Alonzo Menifield ate huge punches from unbeaten Iwo Baraniewski and fought the final two rounds with a badly broken left thumb (which included the bone protruding through the skin) to score a split-decision win. Women’s flyweight Casey O’Neil and middleweight Edmen Shahbazyan took large steps forward into contention of their respective divisions, with O’Neil reversing herself into a wild armbar submission over Eduarda Moura from the bottom. And despite seemingly using every ounce of stamina he had over 15 minutes, heavyweight Tai Tuivasa’s attempt to snap a 7-fight losing streak fell to the wayside in a sloppy, split-decision loss to Robelis Despaigne that was far from easy on the eyes.