Joshua Van reveals he fought UFC 331 with debilitating injury which affected fight camp

Joshua Van went into his UFC 331 title defense with a bad injury.

This past Saturday, UFC 331 touched down in Los Angeles, California, as Joshua Van and Alexandre Pantoja headlined the event with the flyweight title on the line.

When they first met last year, the fight ended disastrously when Pantoja went down injured in the opening exchanges, with an injury that left him out of action for almost a year.

This time, though, Van left no questions when he dominated the Brazilian for five rounds, picking up the unanimous decision win and his second successful title defense.

Now that he has finally banished Alexandre Pantoja, Joshua Van has a lot of fresh matchups in and out of the UFC

‘The Fearless’ Van’s win saw famous rapper Drake pull in over $1 million after wagering a $650,000 bet on the Burmese native to win his fight.

However, Drake may not have put his money where his mouth is if he knew the 24-year-old was going into his title defense with a debilitating injury.

Following the event, Van revealed during the post-fight press conference that he went into his fight with a torn AC joint.

Not only did this affect Van in the fight, but he explained how it put a real dent in his fight camp, as he wasn’t able to spar for the last two weeks of his camp and he was only able to focus on cardio throughout.

“I don’t know yet (when I’ll be able to return), coming into this fight, after the press conference in Philly, I tore my AC joint in my right shoulder,” Van said.

“I couldn’t even spar, so the last two weeks was my first time sparring and you know, this camp we did nothing but cardio, just running and stuff like that.

“I’ve got to go back there and get MRIs and get checked up so hopefully nothing major,” Van continued.

A torn AC joint, which is often called a shoulder separation, is an injury to the ligaments where your collarbone meets your shoulder blade.

At this moment, it is unclear how long Van could be out of action for and what the extent of his injury is.

Despite that, it is unlikely that the promotion will introduce an interim title as the 24-year-old has been extremely active since his signing in 2023.

Having already beaten three of the top five fighters in the division, Van could be set for a title defense against an assuming contender next.

However, the likelihood is that ‘The Fearless’ will take on Manel Kape next, as ‘Starboy’ is riding a four fight win streak while being ranked number two in the division.