Van leaves no room for argument
Joshua Van kept his flyweight belt in Los Angeles on Saturday night. The champion outclassed Alexandre Pantoja over five rounds in the main event of UFC 331 at Crypto.com Arena. The judges had it 49-46, 48-47 and 50-45. All for Van.
The bout settled an old score. Back in December, Van had taken the title in 26 seconds after Pantoja injured his arm. The Brazilian never accepted it. For nine months he kept saying Van had not really beaten him.
There is no debate now. Van moves to 17-2 and records his second title defense, after the one against Tatsuro Taira. Pantoja drops to 30-6, and his path back to the top of the division just got a lot longer.
Try it for $0.99.
Tsarukyan needs one round and one elbow
Arman Tsarukyan wasted no time. The Armenian dropped Mauricio Ruffy with an elbow in the first round of the lightweight co-main event. He improves to 24-3 and edges closer to the title shot he has been chasing since UFC 311, when he pulled out against Islam Makhachev hours before the fight.
Ruffy came in with momentum. The Brazilian had just stopped Michael Chandler at UFC Freedom 250 and had Alexander Volkanovski in his corner. None of it mattered. He falls to 14-3.
Patricio Pitbull also finished inside a round, stopping Dooho Choi by TKO. At 38, the Brazilian holds his place in the featherweight top 15.
Gable Steveson stopped in his tracks
Rough night for Gable Steveson. The Olympic wrestling champion, unbeaten in four fights, was knocked out by Sean Sharaf with a single punch in the first round. Steveson was back just two months after a quick TKO in his heavyweight debut. Sharaf moves to 5-2.
Alonzo Menifield opened the main card by beating Poland’s Iwo Baraniewski on a split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28). Baraniewski loses his perfect record after nine straight wins.
The promotion’s next stop is UFC 332, next month in Salt Lake City.
Discover more MMA news on our mathodds site and app!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply