Brandon Royval believes viral title win at LFA 79 should lead to UFC shot
With the first of back-to-back UFC-less weekends in the books, there were a lot of fighters who competed that hope their performances will lead to an opportunity to compete in the hallowed Octagon. Brandon Royval only needed 23 seconds to make a strong case for himself on Friday night.
Royval became the LFA flyweight champion after defeating 47-fight veteran Nate Williams in the main event of LFA 79. In addition, “Raw Dawg” picked up the fastest submission win in LFA history at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo., just 20 miles or so from his home in Denver.
The 27-year-old Royval checked in with MyMMANews.com to discuss the championship earning viral victory, how many times he’s watched the finish since Friday night, his take on whether he or his teammate Youssef Zalal had the better finish, the family atmosphere at Factory X, what he does for work outside of fighting currently, the importance of being a student of the game as a fighter, who would be a dream-like matchup for him and much more.
With a performance like that, Royval believes he has done enough to receive that life changing phone calls most fighters dream of to compete in the UFC.
“You know what’s really cool? I’m approved by my peers,” Royval explained when speaking to MyMMANews.com. “I’m approved by flyweights [in the UFC]. I had Matt Schnell retweeting me like, ‘Get this kid a contract, man! Someone sign this kid up.’ I don’t know Matt Schnell personally. I don’t know him at all, but me and him have the same fighting style. He’s the most exciting flyweight in the UFC right now. That means a lot to me, man. I’m approved by my peers, I’m getting retweets from UFC guys saying, ‘Yo, give this kid a contract’. I don’t know what else they want from me. You want a finish? You want people to finish? I have all first round finishes except for two. I have one decision win in my career. I have a second round submission and that’s the latest I’ve gone besides the decision. I’m finishing everybody, man. I’m exciting, I’m trying to kill people, I’m trying to get in and out.
“I literally did exactly what a coach wouldn’t want me to do against a guy that I assume was going to wrestle me. I went out there and started the fight with a flying knee which, sometimes that works out, but if it doesn’t work out, I’m going to end up right on my back. He caught a single leg on the way up and I went from being in a position where I could fight that takedown. That’s an easy position to fight, but I said f**k it and I tried to take his head off with a kick and then put myself right back into bad position. I’m risking it all to try to make a statement out here. I don’t know what else they want from me but if you guys want to see more of that then I’ll keep trying to prove myself. I’ll keep trying to turn hits because I don’t give a s**t. I’ve been paying my dues, man. Just give me some money! I’m trying to get, at least over $5,000 for my next fight. I’m not trying to beg everybody for sponsorships, but man, I want to quit my job this year.”
Check out the full interview with the exciting LFA flyweight champion Brandon Royval in the video above.
