UFC flyweight contender Brandon Royval has expanded on the postponement of his clash with Manel Kape this year.
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 in December 2023.
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. 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 originally announced as the headliners for the March 1 UFC Fight Night at the Apex in Las Vegas, but Royval was forced to withdraw after suffering a concussion in training.
Following confirmation that the pair will give their bout a second go at reaching the cage at UFC 317 on June 28, Royval further delved into the health issue that prevented a clash with Kape early last month during a recent interview with Inside Fighting.
“I believe that there’s levels of concussion…that’s just facts,” Royval said. “You can get minor headaches, all that stuff. My concussion was so severe that like, originally I wasn’t formulating sentences well. I wasn’t like, recalling — me and you would be having a conversation, I’d start to talk, and I would forget what I was saying mid-sentence. That was the first week.
“My eyes weren’t tracking. That was the weirdest thing of all,” Royval continued. “If I was bouncing my eyes between things…I would have a hard time finding (what I was trying to look at). … Being a flyweight, being in the UFC, being in any sport, my eyes need to be bouncing. I need to be seeing everything.”
