In early 2020, Brandon Royval took the UFC’s flyweight division by storm. He started by submitting former title challenger Tim Elliot, picking up fight of the night honors in the process. Then the Factory X product doubled down with another fight of the night submission win over (perhaps future title challenger) Kai Kara-France. Those wins had his name of the tip of people’s tongue for a potential title shot in the near future. However, a couple set backs, largely due to a reoccurring shoulder issue that has now been resolved, delayed what Royval believes to be the inevitable.
Now back on his winning ways, he looks to bring himself back into that conversation. Although a win over Matt Schnell at UFC 274 would certainly help the claim, Royval isn’t sure it’ll be enough to have his name in a title fight yet. But, if it were up to him, he knows another name he’d like to see out of the next title fight too.
“I don’t think, if I beat Matt Schnell, I’m getting the title shot next,” Royval said. “But I also don’t want to see [Moreno and Figueiredo] fight four times. The division has been held up for two years.”
Some of Royval’s distaste for a four fight between the two comes from just not giving anyone a chance. However, there are other reasons as well.
“Neither one of those guys are the best in the division,” he said. “We’re just wasting our time with it and honestly, I think Deiveson is 2-1 on Moreno.”
In addition to believing that Figueiredo already holds the majority of wins (due to the somewhat controversial draw in the first fight), he also hasn’t been all that entertained by the fights either.
“The third fight was kind of boring. The fourth and fifth rounds sucked. They never really pressed the action until the last minute,” Royval shared. “I think everybody is over the fight – even those two.”
With everyone over that fight, he says it’s time for a fresh face in there – which may just be his former foe Kai Kara-France.
“Let’s move onto some fresh faces and see who’s the real king of the division,” he said. “Because I don’t think either one of them are.”
You can catch Royval’s fight with Matt Schnell as part of the UFC 274 prelims on ESPN+ this Saturday.
You can also hear the entire audio of this interview below at 2:01.
