Brandon Royval believes that he could be in line to fight Alexandre Pantoja for the flyweight belt at UFC Brazil on 4th May. If the 31-year-old can beat Brandon Moreno in their rematch this Saturday, Royval feels that he has an opportunity to headline the card.
Brandon told Ariel Helwani in an interview on The MMA Hour: “I just found out that [Alexandre] Pantoja is [in Mexico City]. He’s going to be in the audience, so maybe there’s going to be something to fight for other than the number one contender spot.
“Maybe there is a little something deeper than this.”
The number three ranked flyweight believes that he is the guy, if he does get a definitive finish at UFC Fight Night.
Brendan Royval Sees Pantoja as Beatable
The American Royval said: “Respect to [Alexandre] Pantoja, but I know that I can win that fight. I know I can beat him. That’s a winnable fight for me and I feel like he did a lot of great things during [Pantoja and Royval’s first fight] and a lot of cool adjustments. But nobody beats me three times in a row, that’s crazy!”
Royval and Pantoja have already faced off two times in the past two and a half years but “Raw Dawg” has fallen short both times. The Denver-born flyweight lost their first bout via a rear naked choke in round 2, but he came close in December 2023 where Royval lost again by unanimous decision.
The Moreno Rematch
The rematch between Brandon Moreno and Brandon Royval goes down in Mexico City on Saturday, and Royval will seek to avenge his loss. After dislocating his shoulder in the final second of the first round in their first meeting, Royval had to take a nine-month layoff as he underwent surgery.
However, the flyweight contender feels that Moreno’s style does ‘a lot to benefit him’.
Royval said: “A lot of my losses are kind of similar. People holding me in positions and a lot of control time. Whereas, I don’t think [Brandon] Moreno is that kind of fighter that just wants to control positions, he’s going to try and do damage.
“If he tries to do damage, that creates space to allow me to throw up submissions, allow me to get up, allow me to attack and I feel like that benefits my fighting style.”
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
