Brandon Royval got the call to serve as a back-up fighter for UFC Mexico City three weeks after his December loss to Alexander Pantoja, assuming he was getting a free vacation with no chance of either headliner dropping out.
Instead, Amir Albazi was forced out of the event due to health issues, and Royval was more than happy to step up. After all, had he won the flyweight title back at UFC 296, he had been planning to compete in Mexico anyway.
“I had it in my head that I wanted my first title defense here, if Amir Albazi pulled out. I thought would have been a gangster move,” Royval (15-7) explained during this week’s UFC Mexico City media day. “So the fact that I lost the fight, it’s like, why would I not take the fight still? In my head I kind of already wanted to fight in Mexico City and fight Brandon Moreno in this position and this situation anyway. So I’m just lucky it all came together I guess.”
The way sees it, the pressure in the fight is not on himself, but on opponent Moreno. The pair first met in November 2020, with Moreno coming away with a TKO win.
“I’m not saying there’s a lot of pressure on his back — and maybe there is pressure on his back, because the odds are stacked against me when you put it all together. The pressure kind of falls on him; we’re fighting in his home town, I’m fighting on short notice,” noted Royval, adding “I just got out of a five round fight that I got injured in, and it took me extra long to get back.”
“I guess I’m dealing with a lot of these variables where, he don’t really have to deal with that. So I guess the pressure kind of falls on him, because not only are the actual odds in his favor, but this is his storyline right here. This is his city, this is his everything. That’s where I kind of feel like the pressure maybe falls a little bit more on him in that sense.”
Watch the full UFC Mexico City media day appearance by Brandon Royval above.
