The Joshua Van injury: he kept the title on a torn shoulder, with two weeks of sparring in the whole camp
The Joshua Van injury was the part nobody knew about until the fight was over. The flyweight champion beat Alexandre Pantoja across five rounds with a torn AC joint in his right shoulder, an injury picked up the month before, and told the post-fight press conference that he had not sparred until the final fortnight. Pantoja left the arena for precautionary scans.
Key takeaways
- Joshua Van revealed after UFC 331 that he tore the AC joint in his right shoulder a month before the fight and could not spar until the last two weeks of camp.
- He still beat Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision, 49-46, 48-47 and 50-45, to defend the flyweight title for the second time.
- Pantoja was taken to hospital afterwards for precautionary CT scans of the head and face, along with a second fighter from the card.
The Joshua Van injury, in his own words
A camp without sparring
The admission came at the press conference, once the belt was already back around his waist. “I couldn’t even spar. The last 2 weeks was my first time sparring,” Van said, before summing up the preparation in a sentence that explains the shape of the fight: “This camp we did nothing but cardio.”
What an AC joint tear costs a flyweight
The acromioclavicular joint sits where the collarbone meets the shoulder blade, and it takes the load on every frame, every clinch, every post on the mat. Tearing it a month out does not stop a fighter running; it stops him rehearsing. Van arrived with the engine built and the timing untested, which is close to the opposite of how a championship camp is supposed to work.
It reframes the fight that was just scored
The rounds read differently now
The cards were 49-46, 48-47 and 50-45, a spread wide enough to settle the argument and narrow enough on one card to show what it cost. A champion who had not sparred in ten weeks winning a five-round decision against a former titleholder is not the same story as a champion in full preparation doing it.
The answer to the twenty-six seconds
The first meeting ended in 26 seconds and left a year of people calling the win an accident. Van answered it by going the distance, and he did it while unable to train the exact thing a rematch demanded. That is the part worth keeping.
I couldn't even spar. The last 2 weeks was my first time sparring.
The bill for the night
Pantoja to hospital
Pantoja was transported for precautionary CT scans of the head and face after the five rounds, and MMA Mania reported a second fighter from the card made the same trip. Nothing suggests anything worse than caution, but a main event that sends the loser for a head scan is the definition of the fight it was.
A card that hurt
It was not isolated. Alonzo Menifield came through his split decision over Iwo Baraniewski reportedly fighting with a broken thumb, and seven of the twelve bouts ended early. The promotion paid out performance bonuses to Arman Tsarukyan, Casey O’Neill and Sean Sharaf, with Van against Pantoja taking fight of the night.
Follow the flyweight picture with real numbers
Records, finishes, activity and our own ratings for every fighter on this card are kept up to date in the FightHub app. Download it to see where the division stands now the belt has stayed put.
- Arman Tsarukyan vs Mauricio Ruffy: a title shot, and the one way to beat the knockout artist
- Noche UFC results: Moreno snaps his skid, McMillen survives a war and Blaydes outpoints Cortes-Acosta
- Tsarukyan vs Ruffy Booked for UFC 331 After Late Switch
- Van vs Pantoja 2: 26 seconds settled nothing, and both men think the rematch proves them right
