UFC 331 runs from 5:30 PM ET early prelims through a main card that starts at 9 PM ET, and not every one of the card's 12 fights needs your full attention. Three do: the flyweight title fight, a featherweight brawl between two of the division's hardest hitters, and a heavyweight prelim that pairs a fan favorite on a historic losing streak against a puncher built to end it.

Van vs. Pantoja: The Rematch That Actually Has to Answer Something

The main event settles a question the first fight never got the chance to. Joshua Van won the flyweight title from Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323 in December 2025, but that fight lasted 26 seconds and ended when a scramble injured Pantoja rather than anything Van did on purpose. Nine months later, Pantoja finally gets a full five rounds to find out whether Van's power and length actually hold up against his scrambling and submission grappling, or whether the title was won on a freak accident. Van has since defended once, stopping Tatsuro Taira in the fifth round, but the entire flyweight division still sees this rematch as the fight that decides who the real champion is. The full breakdown of both men's paths into tonight is on the Van vs. Pantoja fight page.

Pitbull vs. Choi: Two Careers' Worth of Knockout Power in One Cage

If you only watch one non-title fight tonight, make it this one. Patricio Pitbull is a former three-time Bellator featherweight champion with 12 knockouts and 12 submissions across a 37-9 career, now 1-2 since joining the UFC and looking to prove his dominance elsewhere translates at this level. Across the cage is Doo Ho Choi, a 2022 UFC Hall of Fame inductee whose counter-boxing has produced 14 knockouts in 17 professional fights, riding a three-fight win streak capped by a Fight of the Night stoppage in May. Both men are past 35, both have shown recent vulnerability, and both have proven they can end a fight with a single shot — which is exactly the kind of matchup where the first clean strike tends to matter more than anything either fighter's game plan called for. Their full styles and records are broken down on the Pitbull vs. Choi fight page.

Tuivasa vs. Despaigne: The Prelim Worth Not Sleeping Through

This one airs before the main card even starts, which is exactly why it's easy to miss — and exactly why it's worth catching live. Tai Tuivasa has lost seven of his last eight fights and sits one loss away from the UFC's all-time record for consecutive defeats, a brutal stretch for a fighter who was finishing top contenders and headlining pay-per-views as recently as 2022. He's relocated his training camp to Florida specifically to try to reset the skid, and he's fighting a genuinely dangerous stylistic mismatch to do it: Robelis Despaigne, a Cuban heavyweight and Olympic taekwondo bronze medalist who stands five inches taller with a nine-inch reach advantage, and who has finished all six of his professional wins by knockout. Tuivasa remains one of the sport's most beloved fan favorites, shoe-chugging celebrations and all, which is part of why this fight carries more weight than a typical early prelim — a crowd that loves him will be hoping he can find the one punch that changes the story before Despaigne's length and power take over. More on both fighters is on the Tuivasa vs. Despaigne fight page.

Why These Three and Not the Rest of the Card

UFC 331 has a genuinely deep undercard — an undefeated light heavyweight prospect against a durable veteran, an Olympic wrestler making his second Octagon appearance against an all-knockout puncher, a pair of ranked flyweight women fighting for position — and any of them could end up being the best fight of the night. But these three combine the clearest stakes, the most obvious finishing potential, and the widest range of what a Saturday fight card actually offers: a title fight that finally means something, a pure power-versus-power collision in the middle of the card, and a sentimental long shot buried in the prelims that the whole arena will be rooting for.

That range is worth remembering if your Saturday doesn't have room for all 12 fights. Skipping straight to the main card means missing Tuivasa's fight entirely, and skipping the prelims to save time on a long night means arriving in time for the two fights that need the least setup to understand what's at stake.

The Takeaway

A 12-fight card is a lot to ask anyone to watch start to finish, and UFC 331 doesn't require that to get the best of what tonight offers. The title fight is the obvious can't-miss, but Pitbull vs. Choi has a real chance to be the most violent fight on the entire card, and Tuivasa vs. Despaigne carries a kind of stakes that has nothing to do with rankings — just a fan favorite trying to avoid becoming a piece of history nobody wants. Start early if you can; the reasons to keep watching don't wait for the main card.