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

Last night (Sat., Sept. 28, 2024), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returned home last night (Sat., Oct. 12, 2024) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada for UFC Vegas 98. In the main event, Flyweight contenders Brandon Royval and Tatsuro Taira fought to secure a shot at 125-pound gold. That bout was far and away the most important fight respective to the title mix of any division, but the rest of the fights seem to promise action … but sadly didn’t really deliver much on that end either. All told, there really weren’t a ton of other highlights outside of some quick finishes.

Regardless, let’s take a look back over at UFC Vegas 98’s best performances and techniques:

Royval’s Veteran Win

Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira was the only fight on the card that delivered elite action for more than a couple minutes. The two Flyweight contenders absolutely went to war, demonstrating their skills and strategies at the expense of the other. Round by round, the momentum swung back-and-forth, making for a fight that was both highly competitive and very easy to score.

Sal D’Amato still somehow screwed it up, but that’s to be expected.

Royval’s advantage on the feet took about 90 seconds to materialize. For that opening minute or so, Taira seemed like he might be able to time Royval’s offense with his counter right hand and use kicks to destabilize his stance. As soon as Royval began throwing in combination, however, Taira looked wildly uncomfortable and started getting pieced up.

Fortunately, the Japanese prospect is still a wizard on the floor. His back takes and transitions are genuinely beautiful to watch, and Taira’s back control and response to Royval’s would-be counters was possibly the best I’ve ever seen. He really looked like a master, utterly shutting Royval down on the floor for two of the four rounds.

Like an instant classic, it all came down to the fifth. With a fatigued Taira in front of him, Royval was able to box up his foe and reverse takedowns, putting an exciting stamp on a back-and-forth fight.

Nobody wants to watch Pantoja vs. Royval 3, but as soon as the Brazilian loses his belt, give Royval another shot.

Dawson 2.0?

It’s time to give Grant Dawson another opportunity to climb the Lightweight ranks.

He’s better than these unranked Lightweights, and against Rafa Garcia last night, Dawson was positively violent. He controlled every second of the fight leading into the second, when he landed a vicious elbow that split open Garcia. With a wounded foe in front of him, Dawson advanced into mount and quickly punished his foe for the TKO stoppage.

At 30 years of age, Dawson improves to 10-1-1 in the UFC. Clearly, he’s a very skilled Lightweight, so hopefully this finish helps push him back into relevant match ups.

Sabatini Bounces Back

It wasn’t all that long ago that Pat Sabatini was a top Featherweight prospect, and he just reminded fight fans why. Jonathan Pearce is an excellent wrestler with great physicality, but Sabatini was able to run through him in short fashion.

Sabatini is a genuinely top-notch grappler, one of Featherweight’s best. He struggled with Pearce’s takedown defense for a moment, but he was able to transition onto his back anyway. Once Pearce was trapped in Sabatini’s usual chain of takedowns and top control, he just couldn’t peel Sabatini off him. By the end of the round, Sabatini had taken his back again and locked in the choke.

It’s a hell of a way to snap a two-fight losing streak.

Additional Thoughts

Ramazan Temirov defeats CJ Vergara via first-round knockout: It’s great to see the debut of a new Flyweight prospect! The division has talent around the globe that has yet to be picked up by the UFC. Temirov had already proved himself in the RIZIN ring, building an impressive 17-2 record at 27 years of age. His debut couldn’t have gone much better: he absolutely steamrolled Vergara, knocking him down roughly three times in the opening round to force referee intervention. The Uzbek has now won ten in a row, and it might be time to fast track him to a ranked opponent.
Junior Tafa defeats Sean Sharaf via second-round knockout: TOUGHMAN NEVER DIE! Man, this was a throwback Heavyweight fight in the worst way. At times, I was reminded of Kimbo Slice vs. DaDa 5000. Both men entered this fight with about four minutes of conditioning, but at least Sharaf had the excuse of accepting the fight on very short notice. At any rate, the two brawled tiredly for most of the first round, as Tafa’s sharper boxing was pit against Sharaf’s occasional takedowns. Ultimately, boxing won out, as Sharaf grew too tired to wrestle, leaving him vulnerable to a ripping left hook that initiated the finishing sequence.
Clayton Carpenter defeats Lucas Rocha via second-round submission: Carpenter improved to 2-0 inside the Octagon on the strength of his wrestling and grappling. Rocha’s UFC debut, conversely, went poorly even if his standup looked sharp. Really, the biggest takeaway here for me was Carpenter’s raw size and strength for 125-pounds. He has a great base from which to build, so it’ll be interesting to see how his skills develop as he tries to climb the Flyweight ladder.

For complete UFC Vegas 98 results and play-by-play, click here.