Fresh off a victory over former two-time champ Brandon Moreno, rising flyweight star Lone’er Kavanagh had another big assignment at UFC 329: #4-ranked Brandon Royval.
Kavanagh had shocked in his upset of Moreno in the latter’s native Mexico earlier this year, leading him to be a favorite heading into UFC 329 in Las Vegas.
Kavanagh worked from the outside early as the fight opened, with Royval attacking with his kicks. Both low and high, as one sailed just over the head of the 27-year old Kavanagh. Royval worked his jab, creating space, and caught a couple of Kavanagh body kicks. The second occasion, he fired a punch back to Kavanagh before letting go of the leg.
With 90 seconds on the clock, Royval changed levels and landed a takedown to cap off a dominant frame. Kavanagh’s guillotine defense didn’t work, and soon Royval was going to work on top. Kavanagh would eventually free himself, get back up, and even trip Royval to the mat at round’s end, but the first frame pretty clearly belonged to Brandon Royval.
Royval continued to utilize his length effectively in round two, making it extremely difficult for Kavanagh to work his way inside. Instead, jabs that both landed and did not had the effect of keeping Kavanagh on the outside. Kavanagh did land a kick to the body, and a minute in, rocked Royval with a counter right hand! Kavanagh exploded forward as Royval went down, and was all over him, looking to land ground n’ pound. The biggest moment of the fight to that point, but somehow Royval managed to buy recovery time, in this case working an omoplata. A low-percentage submission, but enough to get Royval out of danger.
With half a round still on the clock, the pair were back on the feet, but Kavanagh landed another heavy right hand. Then a low kick that had Royval stumbling a moment. The back half of the round was high-action, back-and-forth, with both men landing shots, though the round belonged to Lone’er Kavanagh just as much, if not more so, as the opening round was Royval’s.
It was Kavanagh rocked in the opening seconds of round three, which led to a firefight erupting! Royval changed levels for a takedown, and landed it, leading to a guillotine that was defensive more than anything. Royval dropped ground n’ pound, then set up an arm-triangle choke. Kavanagh fought it, looking to turn, create space, and punching Royval. He’d fight off the submission, but had spent half the round on defense, and Royval re-established control of the back. A rear-naked choke came next, and it was in deep. Kavanagh had nowhere to go, and soon enough, he was tapping!
Brandon Royval proved the odds-makers wrong on Saturday, then proceeded to call out Asu Almabayev. A strong showing that at the very least maintains his spot in the title picture despite coming up short in his question for gold previously.
Official Result: Brandon Royval def. Lone’er Kavanagh by submission (rear-naked choke), Round 3, 3:40
