Brandon Royval vs Tatsuro Taira booked for UFC Vegas 97

Following the biggest win of his career earlier this year in February, no. 1 ranked flyweight contender and former title challenger Brandon Royval (16-7) has his next bout lined up as he’s slated to face no. 5 ranked Tatsuro Taira (16-0) at UFC Vegas 97.

UFC Vegas 97 is to go down live from the UFC Apex on October 12, 2024, and Royval vs Taira is expected to headline the event.

Royval impressed us all in his promotional debut back in 2020, submitting former title challenger Tim Elliott (arm-triangle choke) after a back-and-forth Fight of the Night affair. He followed that up with another Fight of the Night performance when he stopped no. 4 ranked Kai Kara-France (guillotine choke) four months later.

Royval would then suffer his first octagon defeat when he was TKO’d by former two-time flyweight champion Brandon Moreno, a fight he suffered a shoulder injury in. Following that defeat he was stopped by future, now current UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja (rear naked choke).

The Colorado native went on to win his next three-straight, defeating the likes of Rogerio Bontorin (SD), Matt Schnell (guillotine choke), and Matheus Nicolau (KO), leading into his title shot against Pantoja, who defeated him via unanimous decision in their rematch last December at UFC 296.

Royval followed this up with another rematch when he defeated Brandon Moreno (SD) over the course of five rounds in their UFC Fight Night 237 main event back in February.

24-year-old stud Tatsuro Taira on the other hand has gone a perfect 6-0 thus far into his UFC tenure, defeating the likes of Carlos Candelario (UD), CJ Vergara (armbar), Jesus Santos Aguilar (triangle armbar), Edgar Chairez (UD), Carlos Hernandez (TKO), and former title challenger Alex Perez (TKO).

Taira has looked like the future of the division ever since he first debuted in the promotion, and he’ll certainly be next in line to challenge for the title should he defeat the no. 1 ranked contender in the division.

Who wins this epic flyweight main event going down this fall?

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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