The Real Winners and Losers From UFC 331

To say UFC 331 was a wild night is an understatement.

We had a legitimately brilliant main event between Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja. We also had a potentially landscape-shifting upset, all-time submission, and an injury so gruesome that the thumbs up emoji needs to be banned.

Winner: The Van-Pantoja Fight We Deserved

We need to talk about Joshua Van's composure.

At 24, he has just defended the flyweight title against a legitimate legend of the sport. But it wasn't just the win; it was the way he won.

Van spent much of the first round on his back, slapping Alexandre Pantoja's ears, without making much effort to scramble away from danger. It was so nonchalant, and it set the tone to capitalize on a clearly emotional Pantoja, who perhaps had the first bout's freak finish in mind.

The Brazilian was visibly frustrated heading into the second round. He quickly became distracted when he thought Van illegally used his head, twice looking to referee Herb Dean when no fouls were committed. Pantoja's aggression set the pace, opened up opportunities for Van's beautiful boxing skills to shine, and led the challenger to become frustrated by his lack of damage output on the ground.

At no point did Van look stressed or in trouble. He is so methodical, so relaxed, that he forces his opponents to expend more energy than they should just to get things going.

That Van looked his best in the fifth round once again is an indicator that he's got the intelligence to back up an incredible skill set. He doesn't wilt in the face of danger - a demoralizing realisation that led Pantoja to coming up short once more.

The warning shot was right there for Mauricio Ruffy.

Not long before he was sent spiralling to the canvas, Arman Tsarukyan laid into him with a nasty elbow, thrown after a sustained period of pushing Ruffy up against the cage and trying to get him on the mat.

The first elbow landed. Shortly after, the next elbow came through a lot harder. Arman then held his struggling opponent up, before one more standing elbow ended the fight - and chatter over the No. 1 contender at lightweight - for good.

This looked all set to be the classic grappler versus the explosive striker showdown many expected. Ruffy even landed a shiner on Arman pretty quickly to play into that narrative, before getting away with a blatant cage grab to stop himself getting taken down.

Ruffy may have wished he allowed it to go to the mat. That grab directly played into the positioning and brutality of the standing elbow finish. It's funny how things work out.

That was a hell of a bad week for Gable Steveson.

It's fair to say the former Olympic gold medalist's fight against Sean Sharaf seemed to be cherry-picked for a simple win. Steveson is clearly a guy the UFC wants to push. He was the huge betting favorite and was expected to build on his debut knockout over Elisha Ellison before moving on to bigger things.

Sharaf turned out to be the worst possible opponent in every respect.

First, there was the press conference, in which Sharaf called out Steveson after he was arrested in 2019.

Then there was the fact that it took just one sweet left to shut off Steveson's lights in the third-fastest knockout in heavyweight history. He was out before he hit the deck — a crazy upset early in the career of a fighter many think will eventually see Steveson hold the belt.

That may well still happen, but Steveson's decision to leave the Octagon before the hand raise just reaffirmed that the last few days have been an unmitigated PR disaster for the Olympic gold medallist.

If you didn't catch the prelims, you missed Casey O'Neill likely earning herself $100,000 with one of the smoothest transitions into an armbar you'll ever see.

We're talking submission of the year potential after battling through Eduarda Moura doing everything she could to choke the Scottish fighter out.

It's the movement of it all. With 1:43 left on the clock, O'Neill is on her back. One second later, Moura's legs are pointing to the sky, as King flips the momentum and lands on her front. A couple of seconds after that, the 28-year-old stood upright and celebrated a career highlight that will be replayed all over the world.

Not since Mr Worldwide set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people wearing bald caps has a Pitbull had such a big result.

"I'm sorry about the last three fights," commented Patricio Pitbull after his excellent first-round knockout of Doo Ho Choi. "I feel like that was my debut."

Finally, after two losses in his first three, the Bellator king has truly shown what he can do in the UFC.

Pitbull took complete control of an exciting battle with the Korean Superboy, who is always down to bang. His power came through against an opponent who is used to enduring plenty of pain, and he headed into Saturday on a three-fight winning streak.

The right that set up Pitbull's first knockout in the organization sent Choi into a slow-mo spin, leaving the door open for a simple finish and a burst of hope that the 39-year-old Brazilian still has enough in the tank to make a real go of his UFC career.

Hey, camera operator, was the close up on Alonzo Menifield's severely broken thumb absolutely necessary?

Atomic calmly asking Joe Rogan if he enjoyed his victory over Iwo Baraniewski while a chunk of his bone saluted the crowd - the top part of his appendage hat-tipping those in attendance - was a gnarly way to kick off a chaotic main card.

The juxtaposition of a man serenely enjoying his moment after overcoming a bruiser who wanted to take his ranking was kind of beautiful. His thumb, however, was not.