Brandon Royval took to social media to remind everyone about himself after Brandon Moreno beat Steve Erceg in the Saturday main event.
“I don’t know who’s getting the next title shot. Could be [Manel] Kape, Kai Kara-France. But if whoever doesn’t get it, I’m down to fight [them]… Or, we could just realize I have wins over the whole top five of the division, been the only person with wins consistently in the top five of the division for the last two-three years, and just quit bulls—ing me and give me the title shot,” Royval stated on his Instagram.
People were so impressed with Moreno’s performance that they started talking about him getting the title shot, seemingly forgetting about his loss to the number-one-ranked Royval in February 2024.
The title picture of the 125-pound class is as vague as ever, with everyone in the contention having lost at least once to the current champ, Alexandre Pantoja. Moreno and Royval each have two losses to Pantoja, while Kape and Kara-France each have just one.
Giving the title opportunity to Moreno wouldn’t make any sense from the rankings standpoint. The only reason the promotion would go for it would be the September PPV card, announced to be taking place in Moreno’s home country of Mexico.
The other two guys in the title picture, Kape and Kara-France, are lower ranked and have beef with each other, so it only makes sense to book the fight between them. Kara-France is coming off a single win over Steve Erceg in August 2024, while Kape’s two-fight winning streak lacks name value.
Royval, on the other hand, is on a streak of two victories in a row over Moreno and the previously-undefeated Tatsuro Taira. He also has a submission victory over Kara-France dating back to September 2020.
“Raw Dawg” was supposed to face Kape at the beginning of March but had to withdraw due to a concussion. A win in this matchup would’ve settled the flyweight contender debate for good.
Royval has been the No. 1 contender in the UFC flyweight rankings for over a year, ever since his win over Brandon Moreno. Since then, their title shots received the number-ten-ranked contender at the time, Steve Erceg, and the debuting Kai Asakura, who both lost to the champion.
While Royval has lost to Pantoja twice, he also has five wins over the top 15 fighters in this division.
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