Dana White’s Contender Series is back this Summer for its fourth season. Week one is scheduled to start on June 23, if all goes according to plan (note: quite obviously, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could change plans). Sources have now confirmed to Cageside Press that a flyweight bout between Brandon Royval and Jerome Rivera will go down on the June 23 show that will kick off the season.
This is a fight that happened once before, just about two years ago. It only lasted forty seconds, however, thanks to a nasty dislocated elbow Rivera suffered. The end result was an injury TKO.
Royval is 10-4 flyweight fighting out of FactoryX. He’s 5-1 in his last six fights with his last loss coming to UFC fighter Casey Kenney. Royval is on a two-fight win streak. He’s the current LFA flyweight champion.
Rivera, since his loss to Royval, has gone on to win his next two fights. He’s 9-2 professionally with his only defeats coming to Royval and former UFC fighter Roberto Sanchez.
The fight, frankly, is a battle between two of the top flyweight prospects in the US. It’s a fight fans were robbed of in their first meeting due to a freak accident. Now they will have the biggest fight of their life live in the Apex arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
