A dislocated elbow ended Pantoja's reign in seconds last December. Now he's reportedly closing in on a rematch with champion Joshua Van, and his comeback says a lot about how grapplers handle the worst kind of setback.
Reviewed by BJJ Gyms · Updated 2026-07-27
Figures drawn from Pantoja's and Van's public comments and event reporting; UFC 331 booking is unconfirmed as of this writing.
Pantoja walked into his December title defense as the favorite, a former champion who had built his reputation on relentless scrambling and a habit of finding submissions when fights got messy. None of that mattered once his elbow gave out early in the opening round. He was tangled up in a scramble, tried to fight out of a bad angle, and felt the joint go. The fight was stopped almost immediately, and Van, the challenger, walked away with the belt under circumstances nobody involved was fully happy with.
That is the part Pantoja keeps returning to publicly. He is not disputing that the fight ended the way it did on the scorecard, but he clearly does not consider it a clean loss in the way a decision or a finish would be. For a fighter who has spent his career grinding out wins through positional control, losing the title to a joint injury rather than a superior technical answer is a different kind of frustrating.
What stands out about Pantoja's comeback is not just that he wants the rematch, it is how fast he got back on the mats. By his own account he was training again within two days of the injury, working around a single functioning arm rather than sitting the recovery out entirely. That kind of urgency is common among high level grapplers, who tend to treat time off the mat as its own kind of setback separate from the physical injury itself.
It is also a risk. Rushing back from a dislocated joint before it is fully stable is exactly the kind of decision a good coach or physical therapist pushes back on, and there is no public detail here about what a full rehab protocol looked like beyond Pantoja's own framing of events. The lesson for anyone training BJJ or wrestling after a joint injury is less about the speed of his return and more about making sure a real rehab plan, not just willpower, is driving that timeline.
Van has already defended the belt once since winning it, a fifth round finish over Tatsuro Taira that settled any question of whether the title win over Pantoja was a fluke result. That leaves Pantoja as the most obvious next challenger on paper, a former long reigning champion with an unresolved storyline against the man who currently holds his old belt.
There is also a competitive case for Manel Kape, who has been pushing for a shot of his own, but Pantoja's combination of name recognition and the specific circumstances of the first fight give this matchup a built in narrative that a fresh challenger cannot match. Expect the promotion to lean into that if and when the fight is finalized.
Pantoja's whole career is a case study in what dedicated grappling training looks like at the highest level, constant scrambling, relentless pace, and a willingness to fight from bad positions until something opens up. That style is exactly why elbow and shoulder injuries are a real risk in scrambles, at any belt level, not just in the cage.
If you train no-gi or gi jiu-jitsu regularly, this is a good moment to ask your instructors how your gym handles joint safety in live rolling, especially in scrambles where limbs get isolated. A good coach will have a clear answer. If you are looking for a place to start training or get back into it safely, find a BJJ gym near you and ask about their approach to injury prevention before you step on the mats.
Nothing is official yet, but here is what will shape the story between now and fight night if the booking goes through.
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He dislocated his elbow in a scramble early in the opening round of his December title defense against Joshua Van, and the fight was stopped as an injury result rather than a clean finish or decision.
Not yet. Reports point to it landing on the UFC 331 card, reportedly targeted for September 19 in Los Angeles, but the UFC has not confirmed the matchup or the date.
Yes, he successfully defended it with a fifth round finish over Tatsuro Taira, which strengthened his claim as a legitimate champion rather than someone who benefited from a fluke result.
Joint injuries can happen in any live grappling session, especially in fast scrambles, which is exactly why a good gym teaches students how to tap early and train control before speed.