UFC 331: Van vs. Pantoja 2 runs Saturday, September 19, 2026 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, a 12-fight card headlined by flyweight champion Joshua Van defending his title against the man he took it from, Alexandre Pantoja. Their first fight lasted 26 seconds and ended on an injury, so the rematch is the first real answer to who the best 125-pounder in the world is. Below it sits a five-round lightweight contender fight between Arman Tsarukyan and Mauricio Ruffy, the second UFC appearance for Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, and a card that already lost a main card bout this week. Here is the complete card bout by bout, every start time, the main event breakdown, and where the community board stands.
UFC 331 fight card: who is fighting on September 19
Twelve bouts across three segments. Card as of September 15, and it is not final until the fighters make weight on Friday. It has already changed twice. Brian Ortega withdrew from his lightweight rematch with Renato Moicano five days out after a cut over his right eye that needed stitches, and that bout is off the card entirely. Earlier, Tsarukyan's original opponent Charles Oliveira withdrew, and Mauricio Ruffy stepped in. Segment placement is also still moving after the Ortega news: the UFC's own event page currently lists Steveson vs. Sharaf as a fifth main card bout, while ESPN, Wikipedia and most card listings have it opening the prelims. The order below follows the majority listing.
Main card
| Bout | Weight class |
|---|---|
| Joshua Van (c) vs. Alexandre Pantoja | Flyweight title (main event, five rounds) |
| Arman Tsarukyan vs. Mauricio Ruffy | Lightweight (co-main, five rounds) |
| Patricio Pitbull vs. Dooho Choi | Featherweight |
| Alonzo Menifield vs. Iwo Baraniewski | Light heavyweight |
Prelims
| Bout | Weight class |
|---|---|
| Gable Steveson vs. Sean Sharaf | Heavyweight |
| Marlon Vera vs. Charles Jourdain | Bantamweight |
| Tai Tuivasa vs. Robelis Despaigne | Heavyweight |
| Michael Aswell Jr. vs. JooSang Yoo | Featherweight |
Early prelims
| Bout | Weight class |
|---|---|
| Ryan Gandra vs. Ozzy Diaz | Middleweight |
| Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Brunno Ferreira | Middleweight |
| Casey O'Neill vs. Eduarda Moura | Women's flyweight |
| Giga Chikadze vs. Joanderson Brito | Featherweight |
How to watch UFC 331: Van vs. Pantoja 2
Event: UFC 331: Van vs. Pantoja 2
Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
Venue: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, California
Early prelims: 5 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. CT, 2 p.m. PT
Prelims: 7 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. CT, 4 p.m. PT
Main card: 9 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. PT
Watch: Paramount+ in the United States, all three segments
The number on the event is the old pay-per-view naming, not a price. The UFC moved its United States rights to Paramount+ for 2026, and UFC 331 streams there as part of a base subscription with no separate pay-per-view fee. Paramount+ has confirmed this one will not air on CBS, so the app is the only way in. One listing published this week had prelims at 6 p.m. ET, but the UFC and Paramount+ both list 7 p.m. ET, and that is the time to plan around. With four bouts on the main card, the title fight walk should land somewhere after 11 p.m. ET depending on how many finishes come ahead of it.
Read the line, then beat it.
Once you can read a price you can spot a bad one. BettorEdge shows real peer-to-peer odds, and they are often better than the book you would get stuck with.
Van vs. Pantoja 2: the main event breakdown
Start with what the first fight did not settle, which is nearly everything. At UFC 323 in December 2025, Pantoja threw a high kick, Van caught it and turned it into a takedown, and Pantoja's left elbow gave out as he posted on the way down. The referee stopped it 26 seconds into the first round. Van left with the belt, but not with an answer to any stylistic question, and both men have said as much all week.
Joshua Van (17-2) is 24 years old and has since made the title his. In May at UFC 328 he defended it against Tatsuro Taira in what was billed as the youngest title fight in UFC history, and it was a hard one. Taira took him down repeatedly and controlled long stretches. Van kept getting up, stuffed 13 of 21 takedown attempts, out-landed Taira 131 to 55 in significant strikes, and stopped him in the fifth round. That fight is the best evidence available on this matchup, because it shows both the risk and the answer: Van can be taken down, and he gets stronger as the fight gets longer.
Alexandre Pantoja (30-6) is 36 and was the most established champion in the division before that night in December. He defended the flyweight title four times, against Brandon Royval, Steve Erceg, Kai Asakura and Kai Kara-France, and was on an eight-fight win streak when the elbow went. He wins with pressure, scrambles and a submission game that makes every scramble dangerous. If he wins, he becomes only the third flyweight in UFC history to reclaim the title, joining Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo.
Van's path. Keep it standing and make it a volume fight. The Taira numbers show how much he throws once he is on his feet, and a champion who just won a fifth round against a grappler has every reason to believe the late rounds belong to him. If he defends the early takedowns the way he did against Taira, the age gap and the pace compound every round after the second.
Pantoja's path. Get on top early and stay there. Taira proved the takedown on Van is available. Nobody has yet proved that control on Van is sustainable, and Pantoja is a far more dangerous finisher from the back than anyone Van has faced. The question for the challenger is the elbow and the clock: whether a 36-year-old coming off a serious arm injury can grapple at championship pace for as long as it takes to find the neck.
A 24-year-old champion who just won a fifth round against a grappler, against a 36-year-old former champion who never actually lost the fight. The first meeting gave the belt a new owner. The rematch decides whether it was the right one.
UFC 331 odds: where the community board stands
Straight with you. As of 12:32 p.m. UTC on Tuesday, September 15, the BettorEdge community board had zero priced positions on any UFC 331 bout. All twelve fights are listed. Nobody has posted a live community price on either side yet. That is normal four days out, because peer-to-peer fight liquidity arrives late, after the weigh-ins clear and the card stops moving. This week it has a particular reason to wait: a main card bout already came off.
So no odds are quoted here, and no number from anywhere else is standing in for one. When community prices post, convert before you compare. Run the number through the implied probability calculator and the moneyline calculator, then decide whether your read on the fight beats that percentage. Two-way fight moneylines are where a built-in house margin bites hardest, which is the whole case for waiting on a peer-to-peer price. The no-vig calculator strips that margin out of any board you want to measure against.
Where the value sits
The main event lean is Van, but not at any price. The BettorEdge read is that Van is the right side on the evidence: he is 12 years younger, he has already shown he can survive a grappler for 25 minutes and finish late, and Pantoja is returning from an arm injury against the best version of the champion he has seen. But the first fight is priced into a lot of people's heads as a win, and it was not one. Any community number that treats Van as a heavy favorite is paying for a 26-second result that answered nothing. The value is in a close price, not a wide one.
The co-main lean is Tsarukyan, with a real first-round caveat. Arman Tsarukyan (23-3, 10-2 UFC) is on a five-fight win streak that includes Charles Oliveira and, most recently, Dan Hooker, and he is widely considered the division's No. 1 contender. Mauricio Ruffy (14-2, 5-1 UFC) has 13 knockouts in 14 career wins and is coming off back-to-back stoppages of Rafael Fiziev and Michael Chandler. Khamzat Chimaev, who trains with Tsarukyan, put the gap bluntly this week: the two are at "completely different levels" in wrestling and grappling. This is Ruffy's first five-round fight. The longer it goes, the more it looks like Tsarukyan's fight, and the early minutes are the only window where the underdog's power is the deciding variable.
The underdog and method-of-victory angle
Iwo Baraniewski has never seen the fourth minute of a fight. The unbeaten Polish light heavyweight (9-0) has finished his last three opponents in the first round in a combined 3:22, according to the UFC's own fight-by-fight preview. That is a three-fight split, not a career rate, so read it as a tendency rather than a law. Alonzo Menifield (18-6-1) is the veteran here, 3-1 in his last four with a May win over Zhang Mingyang, and he is the first opponent with the experience to drag Baraniewski somewhere he has not been. The method question in this fight is more interesting than the winner question: an early finish or a veteran who survives the first round and changes the fight.
Patricio Pitbull is the name, not necessarily the side. The former Bellator champion is 39 and 1-2 in the UFC, with a win over Dan Ige and decision losses to Yair Rodriguez and Aaron Pico. Dooho Choi (17-4-1) arrives on a run of form. The name recognition sits entirely on one side of this fight, and name recognition is the thing a community board overprices most reliably.
Marlon Vera against Charles Jourdain is a trend fight. Vera (23-12-1) has lost four straight and has not won since beating Pedro Munhoz three years ago. Jourdain (18-8-1) is 3-0 since dropping to bantamweight, including a decision over Kyler Phillips. The famous name is on the wrong end of the momentum.
The Steveson fight is one to watch, not one to bet. Gable Steveson (4-0) won Olympic gold in 2020 and two NCAA titles, and in his UFC debut at UFC 329 in July he stopped Elisha Ellison in 2:31 without attempting a takedown. Sean Sharaf (4-2) is 1-2 in the UFC. An unbeaten Olympic champion against an opponent with two octagon losses tends to produce a price with nothing left in it.
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A flyweight title rematch that finally gets to be a fight, a No. 1 contender against the division's hottest striker, and an Olympic champion in Los Angeles. Get your action on BettorEdge and back your fighter against another real bettor at a community price, with up to $100 available when you verify your ID and no deposit needed.
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UFC 331: Van vs. Pantoja 2 FAQ
Who is fighting at UFC 331?
Joshua Van defends the UFC flyweight title against Alexandre Pantoja in the main event, above a main card of Arman Tsarukyan vs. Mauricio Ruffy, Patricio Pitbull vs. Dooho Choi, and Alonzo Menifield vs. Iwo Baraniewski. The prelims are Gable Steveson vs. Sean Sharaf, Marlon Vera vs. Charles Jourdain, Tai Tuivasa vs. Robelis Despaigne, and Michael Aswell Jr. vs. JooSang Yoo. The early prelims are Ryan Gandra vs. Ozzy Diaz, Edmen Shahbazyan vs. Brunno Ferreira, Casey O'Neill vs. Eduarda Moura, and Giga Chikadze vs. Joanderson Brito. That is 12 bouts, as of September 15, 2026.
When is UFC 331 and how can I watch it?
UFC 331 is Saturday, September 19, 2026 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, streaming on Paramount+ in the United States. Early prelims start at 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT), prelims at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT), and the main card at 9 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. PT.
Is UFC 331 on pay-per-view?
No, UFC 331 streams on Paramount+ as part of a base subscription with no separate pay-per-view fee. The UFC moved its United States rights to Paramount+ for 2026, and this card will not air on CBS.
What time is the UFC 331 main event?
The main card starts at 9 p.m. ET and Van vs. Pantoja is the last of four bouts on it, so the walk typically lands after 11 p.m. ET, or after 8 p.m. PT. The exact time depends on how many earlier fights end inside the distance.
Why was Moicano vs. Ortega canceled?
Brian Ortega withdrew from UFC 331 five days before the event after suffering a cut over his right eye in training that needed stitches, so his rematch with Renato Moicano is off the card. Moicano has since been rebooked against Tom Nolan on October 31.
How did the first Van vs. Pantoja fight end?
Joshua Van won the flyweight title from Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323 in December 2025 by TKO 26 seconds into the first round, after Pantoja's elbow gave way when Van caught a kick and took him down. Because the first fight ended on an injury rather than on anything either man did, Pantoja got the immediate rematch.
What are the odds for UFC 331?
As of 12:32 p.m. UTC on September 15, 2026, the BettorEdge community board had no priced positions on any UFC 331 bout, so no odds are quoted in this preview. Community fight liquidity typically fills in once weigh-ins clear, so check the live board closer to Saturday rather than trusting a number printed days early.
How do I bet on UFC 331?
Pick your fighter and place a moneyline on BettorEdge against another real bettor at a community price rather than a sportsbook's. New users can get up to $100 after verifying their ID, with no deposit needed.
Is betting on BettorEdge legal?
Yes, BettorEdge is a peer-to-peer betting marketplace that is legal across 45+ states, with identity verification built in. You are matched against other people, not a house that profits when you lose.
The bottom line
UFC 331 is a title rematch that is really a first fight. Van vs. Pantoja gets 25 minutes this time to answer the question 26 seconds could not, and the champion's fifth-round win over Taira is the best clue to how it plays out. Tsarukyan vs. Ruffy is a grappler against a knockout artist over five rounds with a title shot hanging over it. Baraniewski gets his first real veteran test, Pitbull and Vera carry the famous names into fights where the momentum sits across the cage, and Steveson keeps building in front of a Los Angeles crowd. Twelve fights, three segments, one bout already lost, and a community board that has not spoken yet. Watch the weigh-ins, then watch the prices.
Compare prices before the first prelim
Fight boards move fastest after the weigh-ins and again on fight-day morning. See the live BettorEdge board, back your UFC 331 pick peer to peer, and grab up to $100 when you verify your ID. Better odds. You keep more.
Read the line, then beat it.
Once you can read a price you can spot a bad one. BettorEdge shows real peer-to-peer odds, and they are often better than the book you would get stuck with.