MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings.<\/a><\/p>\nCheck out the UFC 331 live blog for Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 below.<\/p>\n
Here we go, Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja for all the marbles. No more unanswered questions!<\/p>\n
Herb Dean the third man in the cage for this championship main event.<\/p>\n
Oooh, no glove touch. OOOOOOOOH. Van went for it, but Pantoja pulled back.<\/p>\n
Pantoja throwing big punches right away, body lock, and he has Van down! We\u2019re not 15 seconds into this contest yet. Pantoja looks hungry. Van not in immediate danger, but Pantoja is latched onto him. Pantoja just staying heavy, plenty of time to work this round.<\/p>\n
Pantoja goes to take the back, but Van explodes up and turns the situation around, he\u2019s in Pantoja\u2019s guard now. It\u2019s the champion with the chance to move ahead on the scorecards now, half a round remaining. Pantoja busy from the bottom and Van decides to get out of there. More heavy leather from Pantoja, Van firing back, this is a brawl on the feet. Van blocks a trip and pushes Pantoja away.<\/p>\n
Jab from Pantoja, Van now the one coming forward. If they keep this up for five rounds, this will be an all-timer. Pantoja setting up his offense with leg kicks, Pantoja firing in straight punches. Left hook catches Pantoja square. Elbow from Van might have cut Pantoja. Late takedown by Pantoja, immediately into mount, he\u2019s throwing punches with time ticking away, Van doing well to tie him up. Van ends the round by getting back up. What a round.<\/p>\n
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9, Pantoja.<\/p>\n
Pantoja immediately in Van\u2019s face, he works to secure a Thai plum, they\u2019re letting their hands go. Pantoja complains of a headbutt, he says that\u2019s where his cut came from. He\u2019s fuming. Replay definitely shows a clash, but looked accidental. Doctor in to look at the cut. I swear if they stop this\u2026<\/p>\n
We\u2019re back on, with officials deeming the headbutt to be accidental. Pantoja right back in for a takedown. Insane pace. Van keeping a wide base, refusing to be put on his back. They\u2019re back in space, and we have another back-and-forth striking exchange. Van mixing up his strikes, Pantoja meeting him blow for blow. That Van jab is looking good, but Pantoja looks content to walk through it so he can land his own shots. Good body kicks from Pantoja. Van starting to consistently counter.<\/p>\n
Van stuffs another takedown. Counter punch from Van, the boxing is looking sharp. Big right hand from Van. Pantoja goes for a takedown, Van quickly reverses and is back on top. They return to the feet, Van stings him with a right. Van counters a clinch attempt with a few rib-roasters. Pantoja lands a right. Slick level change by Pantoja for a takedown, time ticking away. Pantoja scrambles to the back, but he doesn\u2019t have time to do much with this position.<\/p>\n
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9, Van. Overall, 19-19.<\/p>\n
Pantoja looks annoyed as Van swarms him with punches. He blasts Van with a high front kick. Van rips the body, then lands a counter left. Clear volume advantage for Van right now. Pantoja looking a bit slower in this round, telegraphing his takedowns. They\u2019re standing in the middle and trading punches, my goodness, what a fight.<\/p>\n
Just beautiful combinations from Van, he\u2019s pulling away in this round, even as Pantoja continues to come forward in classic Terminator fashion. He\u2019s not making anything easy for Van. They grapple and it\u2019s Van who temporarily has the back, but he wisely gives up the position to get back to striking. Van cracks Pantoja, but Pantoja eats it and dives in for a takedown.<\/p>\n
Pantoja just hasn\u2019t been able to do much with top control, certainly not enough to steal this round back. He tries a spinning elbow as they separate, Van has it scouted. He is just battering Pantoja with combos and Pantoja tells him to bring it on. What in the world???<\/p>\n
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9, Van. Overall, 29-28.<\/p>\n
Pantoja with a gorgeous low kick-high kick combination. The former champion wants his damn belt back. Van stuffs a takedown. He is just landing straight shot after straight show now. Were it not for Pantoja\u2019s legendary chin, this would have been over a long time ago. And Pantoja gets a takedown!<\/p>\n
Van doing well to avoid damage from bottom position as he has throughout the fight. He\u2019s stuck on his back for now, though. Pantoja with an elbow. Van methodically works up to his feet, but Pantoja maintains the body lock and stops him from rising. Still, has Pantoja done much damage this round?<\/p>\n
Pantoja wants to advance, but he has limited options as they grapple next to the fence. Van threatens with a heel hook that never really had a chance of succeeding. Pantoja grinding away. Tricky round to score, but Van\u2019s early work was the most substantial in my eyes.<\/p>\n
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9, Van. Overall, 39-37.<\/p>\n
Pantoja trying to kick his way in, Van pops his head back with a few straight punches. Pantoja wants to get in. He\u2019s clearly outboxing Pantoja. Pantoja\u2019s kicks are fine, but Pantoja is landing punches to the face over and over again. That\u2019s not a good way to regain the belt, Pants!<\/p>\n
Aggression is awesome, but Pantoja just keeps getting hit and he hasn\u2019t gone for a takedown through half a round. Curious. Van letting his hands go, he\u2019s pulling away now. Massive right hand puts Pantoja down! Wow! Van follows him down and attacks the arm, but Pantoja too slippery. Back on the feet, Van continues the onslaught. Pantoja firing back with a minute to go, but he\u2019s underwater right now.<\/p>\n
Van attacks on the ground, but decides to stand with 30 seconds to go. Pantoja standing in the phonebooth with him, just pure violence. This is Van\u2019s world, though. And still.<\/p>\n
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9, Van. Overall, 49-46 Van.<\/p>\n
Official result: Joshua Van def. Alexandre Pantoja via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-47, 50-45)<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people said that was an accidental win the first time,\u201d Van says. \u201cDoubt me now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says he has nothing but respect for Pantoja, \u201cHe\u2019s a tough motherf*cker, man.\u201d He adds that he has no clue how Pantoja avoided his arm submission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the UFC 331 live blog for Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja, the flyweight championship main event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-902551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}