After besting Tatsuro Taira in the main event of last night’s UFC Fight Night card, Brandon Royval would call Taira out; not for a fight, but for training as he predicts it won’t be long before we see the Japanese star with a shiny gold belt around his waist.
If Brandon Royval isn’t one of your favorite flyweight contenders, we don’t know what to tell you, with ‘Raw Dawg’ earning an outstanding decision win last night in a contest that’s been rightly labeled as ‘one of the best fights of the year.’
Brandon Royval wants to train Tatsuro Taira to become UFC champion
The main event of last night’s UFC Vegas 98 card was certainly a highly skilled and highly entertaining affair; with Brandon Royval and Tatsuro Taira showcasing some of the most elite grappling skills we’ve seen in the division as they went the full 25 minutes at The Apex.
The fight and its combatants have been unanimously celebrated by fans, with Terrance McKinney writing on X how the main event was “one of the best fights of the year, respect to both of em.”
“Modern classic, those boys were putting on a show,” said Andre Fili with former double champion Henry Cejudo hailing that “Taira has a bright future but tonight belongs to Brandon Royval.”
We couldn’t agree more with ‘Triple C’, and it turns out, neither can the man who just got his hand raised to put a halt to the Tatsuro Taira hype train – with Brandon Royval offering his services to help train the Japanese star to future world title success.
“I told him man, anything he needs; if he comes to Colorado, I’ve trained with him before, he does a month in Colorado so anything he needs, anything that I can do to help him get that belt,” he told reporters at the post-fight press conference.
“If he needs a ride, if he needs a f**** place to stay, food or anything like that, he’s more than welcome to stay at my house, he’s more than welcome to borrow a car, he’s more than welcome for me to drop him off [at training].
“When that kid comes to Colorado, I don’t know how he gets around, but you can still him training in all these rooms and he’s doing anything he can to become world champion – I thought that was really evident tonight.”
Royval has slugged it out with the absolute best that the 125lb weight class can offer and knows that Taira does indeed have a place in the upper echelon of the division, even if he had to put him down a peg or two last night.
“That kid, to fight me is a f***** level up, I was watching his highlight reels, and I was like ‘I don’t know how I’m an underdog, I don’t know who any of these guys are in the highlight reel’, so over here in my head I’m like ‘You guys are underestimating me.’
“That kid leveled up to fight me, he’s going to do it again in his next fight, but that kid leveled up to fight me [tonight] and he did a great job.”
- VEGAS 98: Royval earns $50,000 bonus and makes impassioned call for world title fight after ‘modern classic’
Brandon Royval calls for one of two backup spots next after UFC Vegas 98 win
Following the impressive and hard-fought decision victory this past weekend, Royval would demand that he be made the backup fighter for one of two enormous fights going down over the next few months.
These include the main event of the upcoming fight night card in Canada between Brandon Moreno and Amir Albazi, as well as the recently announced title fight between Alexandre Pantoja and promotional debutant Kai Asakura.
“Hey, if you need a backup for the Edmonton fight, I’ll fight either of those mother******, I’ve beaten everybody in the f*****top 5, I have a win over everybody in the top 5. I get that f***** title shot next.
“I get that title shot next; I’ll be the backup. Kai Asakura, I’m going to Japan and I’m taking that s***, if Pantoja wins it then I’m going to Brazil to take that s*** – title shot next, end of discussion.”
Moreno vs Albazi is scheduled for November 2, with the title fight set to go down on December 7.