Joshua Van became UFC flyweight champion in 26 seconds last December.

Nine months later, he finally got the chance to prove what those 26 seconds never could.

There was no freak injury this time. No asterisk. No argument about what might have happened if Alexandre Pantoja had been able to continue.

Van had to fight him for five rounds.

And he beat him.

All three judges gave the champion the decision, with scores of 49-46, 49-47 and 50-45. More importantly, Van spent 25 minutes dealing with exactly the problems that made this rematch so interesting in the first place. Pantoja got to the grappling, found strong positions and forced Van to keep working his way through them. Van never let those moments become the fight.

Van Solved the Same Problem More Than Once

The biggest question before the fight was not whether Joshua Van could box with Alexandre Pantoja.

That part always favoured him.

Van is younger, quicker, more comfortable building combinations and capable of maintaining an exhausting level of activity across five rounds. The uncertainty came whenever the fight stopped being a striking match.

Pantoja made sure that happened.

He got Van down early, found mount and repeatedly forced the champion to work in the sort of transitions where Pantoja has been dangerous throughout his career. The concern was that Van might keep escaping until one scramble finally exposed his back or neck for too long.

That moment never came.

Van gave ground at times without losing his composure. He kept rebuilding position, escaped enough of the dangerous exchanges and then went straight back to producing offence once the fight returned to his range. CBS described the difference well after the fight: Van’s speed and precision did the damage on the outside while Pantoja continued trying to close distance through the clinch and grappling.

That is probably the most important thing we learned.

Against Tatsuro Taira, Van showed that difficult grappling positions do not automatically break his rhythm over 25 minutes.

Against Pantoja, he proved it again against a fighter with a much more dangerous submission game.

The first win gave Van the belt.

This one made it feel unquestionably his.

Tsarukyan Didn’t Need the Wrestling

Mauricio Ruffy did one of the things he absolutely needed to do against Arman Tsarukyan.

He defended the takedowns.

It still did not save him.

Ruffy caught Tsarukyan clean early, forced him towards the grappling and then did an excellent job staying upright when the lightweight contender tried to change the fight. For most of the opening round, that looked encouraging.

Then Tsarukyan knocked him out anyway.

With seconds remaining in the first, Tsarukyan trapped Ruffy along the fence and landed a pair of brutal elbows, the second ending the fight at 4:56.

That is a horrible development for everyone else at lightweight.

The wrestling has always been the obvious problem when preparing for Tsarukyan. If opponents now have to worry about surviving the striking exchanges even after successfully shutting down the first layer of his game, there are not many comfortable places left to take the fight.

Ruffy actually answered one of the biggest questions surrounding him.

Tsarukyan simply found another one.

After six straight wins, this felt less like another contender victory and more like Tsarukyan making the UFC explain why anybody else should be ahead of him.

Twelve Seconds Changed Everything for Sean Sharaf

Gable Steveson’s MMA development had been moving almost exactly as expected.

Elite wrestler. Extraordinary athlete. Still learning the sport, but doing it while winning.

Sean Sharaf needed twelve seconds to blow that entire story apart.

Steveson opened with a low kick. Sharaf stepped into range and landed a left hand that snapped his head back and ended the fight almost immediately. There was no extended sequence to analyse and no gradual tactical adjustment.

Sharaf simply caught him.

The official time was 0:12 of Round 1.

For Sharaf, it is comfortably the biggest win of his career.

For Steveson, it is the first real reminder that MMA does not care how dominant somebody was in another combat sport. Wrestling can determine where a fight takes place, but the few seconds before the wrestling begins still count.

There will be plenty of temptation to completely reassess Steveson after one knockout loss. That would probably be just as premature as assuming the transition to MMA was already solved after four wins.

What changed at UFC 331 is simpler.

We now know there are consequences when he gets caught.

Pitbull Finally Looked Like Pitbull

Patricio Pitbull’s first three UFC fights had never really looked like the arrival people imagined when one of Bellator’s greatest fighters finally crossed over.

Against Dooho Choi, that version finally showed up.

The two veterans started trading almost immediately, but Pitbull was consistently getting there first and landing harder. A right hand froze Choi late in the opening round before Pitbull followed him to the floor and finished the job at 3:28.

At 38, nobody needs to start pretending Pitbull is about to spend another decade climbing through the featherweight division.

He does not need to.

The interesting question is whether the UFC can now use him in the sort of fights his career deserves while he still has performances like this available.

His call for Jean Silva afterwards certainly would not be boring.

Chito Finally Looked Like Chito Again

Marlon Vera badly needed something to change.

Four consecutive defeats had turned one of the bantamweight division’s most reliable threats into a fighter desperately trying to stop the slide.

Charles Jourdain started well enough. His volume was useful in the first round and Vera was not immediately able to settle into the sort of pressure fight he wanted.

Then Chito warmed up.

The shots became heavier in the second, Jourdain hit the canvas twice and by the third the fight was moving almost entirely in Vera’s direction. Another knockdown eventually brought the stoppage at 2:02. It was Vera’s first win in more than three years.

It looked familiar.

That slow start. The growing pressure. The opponent gradually finding out that Vera is still dangerous even after ten minutes of fighting.

Whether that version of Chito can get back into the top end of an absurdly difficult bantamweight division is another question.

For one night, he at least looked like himself again.

Casey O’Neill Turned Defence Into a Finish

Eduarda Moura was supposed to be the stronger grappling presence in her fight with Casey O’Neill.

For a few seconds, she looked like it.

Moura got deep on a D’Arce choke in the opening round and appeared to have O’Neill in genuine trouble.

Then the entire position flipped.

O’Neill escaped, used her butterflies to elevate Moura and attacked the arm while Moura was still coming back towards the canvas. Seconds later, the fight was over.

The official result was an armbar at 3:20 of the first round.

It was one of the best finishes on a card full of them, particularly because it came directly out of a position where O’Neill had been defending.

Two straight first-round finishes have changed the direction of her career very quickly.

Gandra Keeps Removing the Need for Long Evaluations

Ryan Gandra apparently has little interest in giving anyone much tape to study.

Ozzy Diaz started cautiously enough and actually had Gandra backing up while the Brazilian waited for his opening.

Then Gandra decided he had seen enough.

Once he started throwing, he did not stop until Diaz was on the floor and the referee was stepping between them. The finish came at 2:04 of Round 1. It was Gandra’s third UFC appearance of the year and his third first-round finish.

There are still bigger questions waiting for him at middleweight.

He is just making it increasingly difficult to justify asking them slowly.

Final Word

UFC 331 was supposed to give Joshua Van the chance to legitimise the championship he won in bizarre circumstances.

It did that.

But the card underneath him kept producing its own stories.

Arman Tsarukyan showed that successfully defending his wrestling does not necessarily mean you have solved him. Patricio Pitbull finally delivered the UFC performance his reputation promised. Marlon Vera stopped the worst run of his career with a finish that looked reassuringly familiar. Casey O’Neill produced one of the slickest submissions of the night.

And Sean Sharaf reminded everyone that heavyweight prospect development can disappear in the time it takes to throw one left hand.

The first Van-Pantoja fight lasted 26 seconds and answered almost nothing.

The rematch gave us five rounds.

Joshua Van used every one of them to answer the question properly.