Brandon Royval is eager to make himself persona non grata in Mexico.
After losing his UFC flyweight title fight two months ago, Royval is back in the octagon on Saturday for a main event bout against renowned Mexican fighter Brandon Moreno.
The fight against Moreno at Mexico City Arena in Mexico City is on a national holiday there, Flag Day. Royval took the fight on short notice and is an underdog in the rematch between the two fighters who first met in 2020.
“I’ve spent my whole life risking it all, and it’s paid off big for me,” Royval said. “I feel like this is another big risk, and another opportunity to step into a situation where everybody’s doubting me and the odds are stacked up against me. I’m going into enemy territory on short notice, and I’m the big underdog.
“It’s going to be me versus the world in there, and I’m ready to prove the world wrong. I’m going to get in there, do the job, ruin everybody’s night and then come back home to Denver.”
A win over Moreno would catapult Royval back to the top of the contender rankings in his division, and set him up for another crack at the belt against Alexandre Pantoja, who beat Royval by unanimous decision in a title fight on Dec. 16.
Moreno’s last fight was also a loss to Pantoja — a split decision last summer that took the title from Moreno, who in 2021 became the UFC’s first Mexican champion. Moreno beat Royval in their 2020 fight when Royval dislocated his shoulder in the first round.
That result left Royval’s camp at Factory X in Englewood feeling “a bit empty,” as coach Marc Montoya explains. Royval had been battling a shoulder injury for about a year leading into that fight, and afterwards had right labrum surgery.
“We felt like we were going to have an opportunity to win that fight,” Montoya said. “So it’s always nice to get retribution, and in this rematch is his chance to prove that he belongs in a title fight and he’s worthy of another one after he goes and wins this.”
The upcoming match will give Royval “an opportunity to show the world who I really am and what I’m capable of” after his disappointing defeat to Pantoja in the co-main event of UFC 296. At T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Royval’s hopes of becoming the first Denver-born UFC champion — and only the third male champ from Colorado — faded away as Pantoja dominated in grappling with eight takedowns to Royval’s none.
It was Pantoja’s second win over Royval, following the former’s win by submission via a rear naked choke in 2021. For a guy who has made risk-taking part of his brand, Royval acknowledges he played the fight too safe.
“He clearly wanted to win the rounds, and not necessarily look for a finishing (blow),” Royval said. “I feel like I was diehard on my game plan that he was going to try to kill me (via knockout or submission) and that’s where I was going to beat him, by capitalizing on his mistakes. But he went quickly from him swinging big, to just trying to win rounds. He made that adjustment early on in the first round, and I should’ve made that adjustment right back.”
Royval took a three-week layoff to heal after breaking a bone in his right hand during the fight. He resumed training about six weeks ago, emphasizing shoring up the deficiencies in his wrestling defense that got exposed by Pantoja.
“The obvious game plan for (Moreno) is to try to shoot in for takedowns and wrestle his way to the win,” Royval said. “For me, it’s not letting him take me down, making him work hard the whole entire time, and if he gets me down on the mat, I’m going to sub him. And if he doesn’t get me down, I’m going to piece him up on my feet from a distance.”
Rovyal remains steadfast in his belief he’s the “most dangerous (flyweight) fighter in the world,” while Montoya also hasn’t lost confidence that the 30-year-old will eventually become Factory X’s first UFC champion.
“He’s one of the best at 125 (pounds) in the world,” Montoya said. “One of the things that I said to Brandon right after the last fight was, ‘We didn’t win (the belt) tonight. But that doesn’t mean we won’t.’
“We’re literally millimeters away from him being a world champion. But we knew we’ve got to go take miles in training to make sure we’ve solidified some of these holes that he has that unfortunately didn’t let us become the world champion that night.”
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