Brandon Royval had no problem admitting that Tatsuro Taira had drastically surprised him in their main event at the Apex last weekend. "Raw Dawg" emerged victorious via a split decision where he needed to win the fifth round to secure the win.
Having trained together several times in the past, Royval said in his post-fight interview that he expected to run straight through the rising Japanese contender.
He didn't believe that the 24-year old Taira would be close to his level so it would be a quick night at the office with a first or second round finish but the fight ended up being a great competitive clash.
Though Royval had the clear advantage in the striking exchanges, it was the excellent grappling game of his opponent that cause him some issues.
Royval is no stranger to facing top grapplers in the division and is usually able to cause them some issues with his own scrambling ability. He wasn't able to do this consistently against Taira who is a master of taking the back and keeping it whilst he works to secure submissions from this dominant position.
In an interview with former UFC champion Michael Bisping on his Believe You Me podcast, Royval spoke about how Taira's back control and body triangle was another level to what he has experienced in the past, even compared to the likes of Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Moreno.
When he locked in that body triangle I immediately was like, oh that's a different type of body triangle and I've never felt a body triangle where I was like oh that's actually really, really tight... I really thought he'd be the least effective of the back riders and holy s*** that kid on my back was a whole different strength, a whole different feeling and really eye opening