Tai Tuivasa was winning on the market with a round to go, then lost his eighth in a row
Despaigne opened at 78c, was offered as low as 18c while the fight was live, and still took two of the three cards in a heavyweight split.
By ExclusiveTuna · UFC 331: Van vs Pantoja 2 · Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles
Robelis Despaigne beat Tai Tuivasa by split decision at UFC 331 on September 19, 2026, in a heavyweight prelim at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The fight went the full three rounds to 5:00 of round three. The cards read 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28. It was Tuivasa's eighth straight loss.
The short version
- Robelis Despaigne beat Tai Tuivasa by Decision (split), round 3, 5:00
- Prelims, Heavyweight, 3 rounds
- Closing line: Robelis Despaigne −550, Tai Tuivasa +410
- Robelis Despaigne traded at 78¢ before the fight and settled at 100¢
- Scorecards: 29-28, 28-29, 29-28
What happened
Three rounds of heavyweight, and the judges split it. Two cards read 29-28 for Robelis Despaigne, one read 28-29 for Tai Tuivasa, and it was scored at 5:00 of round three. Yahoo's card roundup put the word slopfest in its headline. No source contested the scoring. The complaint was about the quality of the fight, not about the judges.
Despaigne is Cuban, an Olympic taekwondo bronze medallist from London 2012 at plus 80 kilos. The UFC released him in 2024. He went 7-0 in Karate Combat, won its heavyweight title, and was re-signed in July 2026. His MMA record is now 7-2, and 2-2 in the UFC. This was the first decision win of his career. Every previous win had come by first-round KO or TKO.
Tuivasa drops to 14-11. Eight straight losses ties Tony Ferguson's UFC record. His last win came against Derrick Lewis at UFC 271 in February 2022, more than four years ago. Despaigne used his time in the cage to thank the promotion “for the second chance, to my team and my family who never left me alone”, and said the comeback meant “so much to me”.
What the market did
Read this before the table. The lowest trade on this market printed at 12¢, and you will see that number quoted elsewhere. It was not a price you could buy at. It was a seller hitting the bid. The best offer at that moment was 18¢, 6¢ higher, and that is the number this page uses.
Despaigne opened at 78c (-550) as a heavy favourite, with Tuivasa at +410. During the fight the cheapest a buyer could have paid was 18c at 00:24Z on September 20, a 60 cent move against the favourite. For that stretch the market had Tuivasa winning. The split decision went the other way and Despaigne settled at 100c, the same as every winner on the card.
Other sites will quote 12c. That was a seller hitting the bid, six cents below the best offer, so nobody could have bought there. At 18c the point stands. Despaigne had never won past the first round in his career. When the early finish did not arrive, traders sold him. The judges were counting rounds the whole time. Price tracks momentum. Cards count rounds.
What each stake returned
| Stake | Contracts at 78¢ | Returned | Contracts at 18¢ | Returned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100.00 | 128 | $128.00 | 555 | $555.00 |
| $200.00 | 256 | $256.00 | 1,111 | $1,111.00 |
| $5,000.00 | 6,410 | $6,410.00 | 27,777 | $27,777.00 60% of the minute |
The right half is the best offer that existed while the fight was live. Getting filled there still depends on size being available, which a candlestick cannot tell you. Where a stake would have been a large share of that minute's entire volume, the table says so rather than printing a number nobody could have collected. Volume on that minute was 46,200 contracts. Returns are gross of the Kalshi trading fee and are hindsight: they show what a price paid once the result was known, not what anyone should stake next.
The bout, on the record
| Result | Robelis Despaigne def. Tai Tuivasa |
|---|---|
| Method | Split decision, 3 rounds |
| Scorecards | 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 |
| Streak | Tuivasa's 8th straight loss |
| Pre-fight price | 78c (-550) |
| Cheapest you could buy | 18c, 00:24Z Sept 20 |
| Lowest trade printed | 12c, a seller hitting the bid |
| Settlement | 100c |
Quick answers
Who won Tuivasa vs Despaigne at UFC 331?
Robelis Despaigne won by split decision, 29-28, 28-29, 29-28, after three heavyweight rounds. It was the first decision win of his career. Every previous win he had came by first-round knockout or TKO.
How many losses in a row does Tai Tuivasa have?
Eight. The loss to Despaigne was his eighth straight, which ties Tony Ferguson's UFC record. His last win came against Derrick Lewis at UFC 271 in February 2022. He is now 14-11.
Why did Despaigne's price fall to 12 cents if he won?
12 cents is the lowest trade that printed, and that was a seller hitting the bid. A buyer could not have done better than 18c. Either way the move was real. In-play prices track what traders believe is happening at that moment, not the scorecards. Despaigne had only ever won in round one. No finish came, so the market sold him. Two judges still had him ahead.
All 12 bouts and the full UFC 331 results board
Sources and method
Results and scorecards from the official UFC event pages, cross-checked against Sherdog and theScore. Closing moneylines from BestFightOdds and DraftKings, captured after the event. Contract prices are Kalshi one-minute candlesticks on the KXUFCFIGHT series, market KXUFCFIGHT-26SEP19TUIDES-DES. Where sources disagree on a finish time or a method, both readings are carried on this page rather than resolved silently. We aren't affiliated with the UFC or Kalshi.