Brandon Royval hands Tatsuro Taira his first career defeat in UFC Vegas 98 main event
Brandon Royval defeats Tatsuro Taira in UFC Vegas 98 main event
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, October 12, 2024, for UFC Vegas 98, going down live from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Headlining the UFC Vegas 92 event was a flyweight affair between no. 1 ranked former title challenger Brandon Royval (17-7) and no. 5 ranked Tatsuro Taira (16-1).
Brandon Royval came into the bout fresh off his win over former two-time UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno (SD) earlier this year in February, while 24-year-old Taira came in off his main event win over former title challenger Alex Perez (TKO) in June.
Continue reading to see how our UFC Vegas 98 flyweight main event of the evening went down:
Official Result: Brandon Royval def. Tatsuro Taira via split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47)
Taira caught Royval with a solid right hand about one minute into the bout before Royval appeared to find his range midway through it, landing his round kick to the body and straight left seemingly at will. Taira then caught Royval off balance with his right hand again, taking him down soon after though Royval was right back to his feet following.
Taira timed a beautiful takedown as Royval was coming in early on in the second, holding back mount for the vast majority of the round.
This one really turned into a fight in the third; Royval stuffed Taira’s early takedown attempt and appeared to be taking the fight over as the Japanese prodigy was fading. Taira started to get tagged up badly in this one, shooting in on a number of takedowns, all of which he failed on.
Royval took his back and proceeded to go for the armbar, which Taira easily escaped before again taking Royval’s back, ending the round in a dominant position.
Taira had an exceptional first round four of his career, largely controlling the action with his dominant grappling again.
Round five on the other hand was a different story.
Taira secured a takedown about 90 seconds in before he was reversed, spending some time on his back. After returning to his feet the two traded strikes before Brandon Royval ended up on his back in the final minute of the fight going for the finish.
This was a close one that the former title challenger was just barely able to edge the young undefeated stud, who’s seemingly a sure future world champion.
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