Tag: Brandon Royval

Brandon Royval Calls For Venue Change After Crucial Manel Kape Fight Announced For UFC Apex

UFC flyweight contender Brandon Royval believes the magnitude of his next fight lends itself to a better environment than the Apex. 2024 was a successful year for the #1-ranked Royval, who entered it off the back of a disappointing performance in his title challenge against Alexandre Pantoja last December. First, a short-notice opportunity to run […]

UFC flyweight contender Brandon Royval believes the magnitude of his next fight lends itself to a better environment than the Apex.

2024 was a successful year for the #1-ranked Royval, who entered it off the back of a disappointing performance in his title challenge against Alexandre Pantoja last December.

First, a short-notice opportunity to run it back with Brandon Moreno in Mexico arose, and “Raw Dawg” made the most of it by outpointing the former champion. And eight months later, Royval returned to a win streak by turning away the charge of Japan’s Tatsuro Taira.

With that, the 32-year-old is firmly back within the championship conversation at 125 pounds. And to earn another chance at the gold, Royval must now get past Manel Kape.

The pair were recently announced as the headliners for the March 1 UFC Fight Night at the Apex in Las Vegas. Like his win over Taira, the clash is currently slated to take place with a limited crowd at the low-capacity Apex facility in Las Vegas.

But given the likely title stakes — not to mention both men’s ability to put on a show inside the Octagon — Royval thinks that should change…

“Kape and I is a dope ass fight,” he wrote on X. “We should make this happen in front of an audience.”

For “Starboy,” the bout offers the chance for him to secure a first title shot on MMA’s biggest stage. The former Rizin champ originally called his shot for a rematch versus Pantoja next year after a dominant victory over Bruno Silva in Tampa earlier this month.

But after Dana White was quick to dismiss that as a possibility, Kape now has his next assignment in the calendar, as he looks to wrest Royval’s top contender status away in 2025 en route to the flyweight throne.

Manel Kape Misses Out On Title Shot, Faces Top Contender In UFC Fight Night Main Event

Manel Kape’s recent performance will not earn him a UFC flyweight title shot — at least not yet. He may, however, be one fight away from getting such. Per Ag. Fight, Kape’s next fight has already been booked, as he will take on former title challenger Brandon Royval in the main event of a UFC […]

Manel Kape’s recent performance will not earn him a UFC flyweight title shot — at least not yet. He may, however, be one fight away from getting such.

Per Ag. Fight, Kape’s next fight has already been booked, as he will take on former title challenger Brandon Royval in the main event of a UFC Fight Night card at the APEX on March 1, 2025.

Kape competed on last week’s UFC Tampa card, taking out Bruno Silva in a highlight TKO. The result marked “Starboy’s” fifth win in his last six fights and helped him bounce back from a loss in his dlackluster outing with Muhammad Mokaev at UFC 304 earlier this year.

Manel Kape vs. Brandon Royval Targeted For March 1 UFC Fight Night

Royval is on a similar path, having defeated former champion Brandon Moreno and the highly touted Tatsuro Taira in his two 2024 fights. His sole loss in recent times was an unsuccessful challenge of current flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 296. “Raw Dawg” also lost to Pantoja in their initial 2021 meeting.

Pantoja, meanwhile , successfully defended the title against former RIZIN champion Kai Asakura in the Japanese star’s UFC debut earlier this month at UFC 310.

Manel Kape vs. Brandon Royval Booked for UFC Flyweight Title Eliminator on March 1

Manel Kape vs. Brandon Royval Booked for UFC Flyweight Title Eliminator on March 1Manel Kape and Brandon Royval are set for a scrap on March 1 to determine flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja’s…

Manel Kape vs. Brandon Royval Booked for UFC Flyweight Title Eliminator on March 1

Manel Kape and Brandon Royval are set for a scrap on March 1 to determine flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja’s next challenger.

Kape scored an impressive third-round knockout against Bruno Silva at the promotion’s final event of 2024. Having won five of his last six, ‘Starboy’ is on the cusp of his first shot at UFC gold. To get there, he’ll have to go through Royval per a report from AG Fight.

According to the report, Kape and Royval will square off on March 1 when the UFC heads back to The APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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After seeing his four-fight win streak snapped at the hands of the recently released Muhammad Mokaev, Kape bounced back in a big way against Silva at UFC Tampa. Through two rounds, ‘Starboy’ delivered a dominant performance accompanied by a healthy amount of trash talk and showboating before finishing Silva just under the two-minute mark of the third round.

Kape goes into the title eliminator sporting a 5-3 record inside the Octagon, 20-7 overall, and is the sixth-ranked contender in the flyweight division.

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Brandon Rovyal earn a third crack at Pantoja with a win over Manel Kape

Standing across from ‘Starboy’ this spring will be Brandon Royval, a former UFC title challenger coming off an impressive performance against Tatsuro Taira at a Fight Night event in October.

Like Kape, Royval has won five of his last six and is currently sitting on back-to-back wins over Taira and former flyweight titleholder Brandon Moreno. ‘Raw Dog’ also holds victories over Tim Elliott, Kai Kara-France, and Matheus Nicolau. Royval has already gone toe-to-toe with Pantoja on two separate occasions — once before and once after ‘The Cannibal’ claimed the 125-pound crown.

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Royval came up short on both occasions, the most recent being their flyweight title tilt at UFC 296. Pantoja earned a decisive unanimous decision victory and has since followed that up with wins against Steve Erceg and two-time RIZIN FF bantamweight champion Kai Asakura.

Royval is currently sitting as the No. 1 ranked contender in the division and holds a 7-3 record in the UFC, 17-7 overall.

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Former Opponent Says He Massively Enjoyed Watching Brandon Moreno’s Bounce Back Win: ‘This Is What I Want To See’

#1-Ranked flyweight contender Brandon Royval was watching closely this past weekend as the UFC returned to Edmonton for a Fight Night event. In the main event, former champion Brandon Moreno reminded everyone just how good he can be. The Mexican star put on a dominant performance to hand Amir Albazi his first loss inside the […]

Continue Reading Former Opponent Says He Massively Enjoyed Watching Brandon Moreno’s Bounce Back Win: ‘This Is What I Want To See’ at MMA News.

#1-Ranked flyweight contender Brandon Royval was watching closely this past weekend as the UFC returned to Edmonton for a Fight Night event. In the main event, former champion Brandon Moreno reminded everyone just how good he can be.

The Mexican star put on a dominant performance to hand Amir Albazi his first loss inside the Octagon, looking back to his best after suffering consecutive losses in his last two outings. His boxing skills and speed have always been two of his best attributes but it’s been a while since we really saw him control a fight from start to finish.

Earlier this year, Moreno faced Royval in a rematch in Mexico City where after losing a split decision, he announced that he would be taking some time off. Though Moreno didn’t stay away from the gym for too long, the time with his family clearly led to him coming back revitalized and Royval enjoyed seeing that from him.

The result seemingly worked out in favor of “Raw Dawg” who could have found himself waiting behind Albazi in line for a title shot if he had got his hand raised given his winning streak in the division.

In a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Royval said though he’s happy Moreno won because of the impact it has on his standing in the current title picture, he was excited to see his former foe looking dialled in and on point in Canada.

“I thought he looked sick bro, I had such a good time watching him. I liked the look in his eye when he walked out like the moment he walked out, I was like alright cool, this is what I want to see. It was like a p***** off Brandon Moreno ready to go and he fought with the f****** attitude and a chip on his shoulder and I love that, I love to see that.”

Continue Reading Former Opponent Says He Massively Enjoyed Watching Brandon Moreno’s Bounce Back Win: ‘This Is What I Want To See’ at MMA News.

Brandon Royval Explains How Pantoja Title Fight Announcement Aided Him vs. Taira

Brandon Royval came into his recent fight against Tatsuro Taira in a bit of a difficult position regarding the flyweight title picture. The former title challenger has already beaten many of the top contenders but hadn’t been able to defeat the current champion, Alexandre Pantoja. This led to some confusion regarding the stakes of his […]

Continue Reading Brandon Royval Explains How Pantoja Title Fight Announcement Aided Him vs. Taira at MMA News.

Brandon Royval came into his recent fight against Tatsuro Taira in a bit of a difficult position regarding the flyweight title picture. The former title challenger has already beaten many of the top contenders but hadn’t been able to defeat the current champion, Alexandre Pantoja.

This led to some confusion regarding the stakes of his main event clash with Taira. Whilst a win for the rising Japanese contender could have earned him a title shot, that wasn’t necessarily the same case for Royval.

The idea of either man being next to challenge Pantoja was dispelled on the day of the fight when it was announced that recent signing Kai Asakura will face the champion on his UFC debut in December.

Royval has already said that the former RIZIN fighter getting the title shot straight off the bat doesn’t bother him because a reshuffle of the division suits him well. He also told Ariel Helwani in a recent interview that this announcement didn’t negatively impact him when it happened on the day he was fighting.

“Raw Dawg” said that he already knew this fight would be next so it actually helped give him something to aim for going into what ended up being a great fight against Taira that he won via split decision.

The next title fight coming together gave him a clearer sense of direction so that he could focus on securing the win and moving on to face the winner of Pantoja and Asakura.

“I knew about that a long time ago. It just gave me a way to aim, you know what I’m saying, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted a direction to go because I’m like, ‘F***, I’m about call out three, four different people, but now that it’s, okay, there’s a title shot. Okay, I got the winner’, and it’s like, I think whoever the winner is, there are certain advantages either way. It’s just like I could go fight in Brazil or I could go fight in Japan and I think if Asakura wins, a fight in Japan would be almost a mandatory I think.”

Continue Reading Brandon Royval Explains How Pantoja Title Fight Announcement Aided Him vs. Taira at MMA News.

Tatsuro Taira Issues First Statement After UFC Fight Night Loss To Brandon Royval

Tatsuro Taira has released his first statement on social media after suffering the first loss of his career in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event. After winning his first six outings on mixed martial arts’ biggest stage, Taira had the opportunity to impress opposite the #1-ranked contender at 125 pounds on Saturday night inside the […]

Continue Reading Tatsuro Taira Issues First Statement After UFC Fight Night Loss To Brandon Royval at MMA News.

Tatsuro Taira has released his first statement on social media after suffering the first loss of his career in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main event.

After winning his first six outings on mixed martial arts’ biggest stage, Taira had the opportunity to impress opposite the #1-ranked contender at 125 pounds on Saturday night inside the Apex.

And although he exited the cage with a defeat added to his previously perfect record, the rising Japanese star certainly made a splash in his sophomore experience in the headline spotlight.

Taira Keeps Eyes On Ultimate Prize After First UFC Setback

Taira played his part in one of the best main events and fights seen under the UFC banner in 2024, going toe-to-toe with Brandon Royval across 25 minutes in Las Vegas.

The Japanese 24-year-old earned the nod on one of the judges’ scorecards, but he ultimately fell on the wrong side of a split decision verdict.

Nevertheless, Taira’s stock didn’t appear to fall with the result, which came after he had overcome notable adversity in round three to avoid being finished.

And moving forward, the loss has seemingly done little to affect the Okinawa native’s drive to reach the top. In fact, he appears more eager to achieve title glory in the UFC than ever.

“Thank you so much for all your support. I’m also grateful to my team for coming to the U.S. and supporting me,” Taira wrote on X (translated from Japanese). “Even though I was overcome with emotion after losing, I felt a strong desire to become UFC champion and give back to everyone, even if just a little. I will look forward and come back stronger.”

While Taira looks ahead to his chance to quickly return to winning ways next time out, gold is no doubt on the mind of Royval.

“Raw Dawg” has now won back-to-back main events against top-five opposition since falling short against Alexandre Pantoja in his first title shot last December. He’ll now have a close eye on “The Cannibal’s” upcoming defense opposite newcomer Kai Asakura.

Continue Reading Tatsuro Taira Issues First Statement After UFC Fight Night Loss To Brandon Royval at MMA News.