Biggest Winners, Loser From UFC Vegas 98 | UFC Betting Sites

UFC Fight Night: Royval v Taira — Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

UFC Vegas 98 went down last night (Sat., Oct. 12, 2024) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw Brandon Royval and Tatsuro Taira put on an instanct classic in the main event, which resulted in “Raw Dog” defeating Taira via split-decision. In the co-main event, Jun Yong Park defeated Brad Tavares, also via split-decision.

Biggest Winner: Brandon Royval

The men’s Flyweight division is alive and well, as Royval and Taira put one one of the best fights of 2024 proving that even though the division may not have the biggest names, it’s as exciting as any weight class in the game. Indeed, the two men went to war for 25 minutes, displaying an array of beautiful techniques in both the ground and striking fields. While credit has to be given to Taira for his efforts, Royval was the one that did the most damage and did enough to get the the close split-decision win. In doing so, he hands the Japanese-born fighter the first loss of his career. Now, “Raw Dog” will be an very interested observer on Dec. 10 when division champion, Alexandre Pantoja, defends his title against against former RIZIN champion, Kai Asakura, in the main event of UFC 310 because he will likely get the winner.

Runner Up: Grant Dawson

Dawson is slowly making his way toward a Top 15 ranking, and his second round technical knockout (TKO) win over Rafa Garcia last night helped his cause. Indeed, “KGD” brutalized “Gifted” with a heavy dose of nasty ground-and-pound to force a stoppage in round two, the first man to ever finish Garcia. The win brings his UFC record to 10-1-1, with his lone defeat being a knockout loss to King Green. The 155-pound division is crowded with talent in the Top 15, but Dawson has been showing that he deserves to in the mix with the cream of the crop.

Honorable mention: Daniel Rodriguez

Rodriguez makes this list because of the impact his split-decision win over Alex Morono has on his UFC career. Simply put, had he lost this fight he would have probably been cut seeing as how it would have been his fourth straight defeat. Granted, the decision could have gone either way, but the fact remains that “D-Rod” came out on top on the judges scorecards and he lives to fight another day and prove his worth inside the Octagon. Because as we’ve seen recently, the promotion has been itching to dismiss as many fighters as possible to make room for the new wave. So for this simple reason alone, Rodriguez was one of the big winners.

Biggest Loser (s): Jonathan Pearce and Brad Tavares

Pearce’s woes just keep on growing. Coming into the event, Pearce was in need of a win because he had lost his previous two fights, which was a drastic difference from the hot 5-1 mark he enjoyed in his first six fights with the promotion. Now, Pearce will be on edge in the coming weeks to see if he gets the dreaded pink slip after losing his third straight fight after he was forced to tap to Pat Sabatini’s rear-naked choke. That is now the second time in three losses that he falls victim to his foe’s jiu-jitsu skills, losing to Joanderson Brito in similair fashion in Nov. 2023. There is no telling if he he will get one more chance to prove his worth of a spot on the bloated roster. As for Tavares, while his fight against Jun Yong Park was close — he lost a split-decision — the fact remains that the longtime veteran has now lost two straight, and four of his last five fights. Some of the judges’ scoring has been wonky over the last few events — what else is new — but Tavares didn’t do enough to impress the ones that matter. He, too, will be on edge to see if he gets at least one more fight inside the Octagon.

For complete UFC Vegas 98 results, coverage, and highlights, click HERE.