UFC flyweight star Brandon Royval broke down tonight’s UFC 331 main event between champion Joshua Van and challenger Alexandre Pantoja.
Last December at UFC 323, Van defeated Pantoja via first-round TKO when the Brazilian injured his arm. Now, nine months later, they meet again, with Van fresh off a successful title defense over Tatsuro Taira.
It should be an amazing fight, and Royval’s breakdown of the bout is intriguing to hear.
Brandon Royval Predicts UFC 331 Headliner
Speaking on One On One with UFC commentator Laura Sanko, Royval shared his prediction for the UFC 331 headliner.
“I kind of thought Pantoja was just going to run through him. And even in the little sequence, I thought Pantoja was getting the better of the 10 seconds of striking they had, but it is what it is. I love how they started it. Here’s one thing that I do know for sure is this will be Fight of the Night. They’re going to steal the show. Joshua Van is probably getting better increasingly by the second. I think he has such a natural fighting talent of just being calm, cool, and collected inside the chaos, and you could see it in him getting dominated in the first round and a half against Taira,” Royval said (via MMAjunkie.com).
“It was full-on mount and he made a comeback, and just kept picking it up from there. I would say Pantoja is not the opposite, but Pantoja’s like, ‘Oh, we’re going right now.’ So, if he could survive those first two and a half rounds, then I think Pantoja might slow down significantly, and I think Joshua Van will pour it on. Joshua Van does something unique that I don’t think any of us really do as far as like, when I fought Pantoja, I was going straight after his head. I don’t even know if I threw a body shot, whereas Joshua Van attacks the body pretty heavily. If I could go back in some of those, especially the fifth round when I fought Pantoja, I would have went after the body.”
Brandon Royval Still a Top Contender at 125 lbs
Though Royval lost two straight fights in 2025, he bounced back in a big way with a third-round submission win over Lone’er Kavanagh at UFC 329 in July, so he is still one of the top flyweight contenders in the world.
That means that Royval could potentially be in line to fight the loser of this bout, as he lost decisions to both Van and Pantoja in the past, making a rematch between either fighter very intriguing to watch play out.
We’ll have to see how the UFC 331 headliner plays out, because if Pantoja wins a close fight, then perhaps the UFC will want to run back a trilogy bout between the two rivals. Either way, it should be a fantastic fight to watch take place, and you know that Royval and the rest of the flyweight contenders are going to be watching this matchup very closely when it happens tonight.
Brandon Royval Breaks Down UFC 331 Flyweight Title Fight