- Brandon Royval talked about his thoughts on his last fight at UFC Vegas 98
- “Raw Dawg” is open to facing Henry Cejudo at 125 if he doesn’t get another title shot
Brandon Royval opened up about how he imagined his latest win over Tatsuro Taira playing out and potentially facing Henry Cejudo at 125.
Brandon expected a dominant win
In an exclusive interview with Middle Easy, “Raw Dawg” confided that though he got the split decision win over Taira, he expected a completely different outcome. According to Royval, he came into the fight thinking he would dominate his opponent in a lopsided win.
“I don’t know man, it’s not that I didn’t like the fight. I feel like there’s some certain hand combinations I put together pretty nicely which was pretty cool. Other than that, maybe I just expected a whole different kind of fight. If I’m being honest,” Royval said.
“I definitely thought I was going to steamroll him. I thought it was gonna be a not close fight at all. Tatsuro’s gotten good man… He’s definitely stepped his game up and that kid came to fight,” he added.
Always the underdog
Heading into UFC Vegas 98, Royval was a 3-1 underdog despite coming off a win over former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno. When asked for comments, “Raw Dawg” said it didn’t bother him much and if anything, he enjoys making people who bet on his opponent lose their money.
“I’m always the underdog so I don’t really care that much but that being said, it’s like there’s always a chip on my shoulder that I think comes with all that where I’m like, I’m gonna ruin everybody’s parlay like, I really have a lot of that when I walk out there. I’m not gonna lie,” Royval admitted.
Brandon thought about a final round KO
Royval was well aware that his fight with Taira was close. Ahead of the final round, he was told that it could go either way. Admittedly, “Raw Dawg” thought about scoring a late knockout as he didn’t want to leave it to the judges.
“I thought the rounds were obvious. I thought the rounds that I won were obvious, and the rounds that he won were obvious. I thought I won three rounds. It was funny though, I remember going back to that corner and they’re like, ‘it’s 2-2.’ I was like, I gotta knock him out in the fifth round. I was thinking in my head I gotta finish this fight,” the 32-year-old revealed.
Welcoming Cejudo back to 125
As for the talks of Cejudo possibly making his return to flyweight, Royval doubts that “Triple C” would commit to it. However, he would be thrilled to welcome the former champion back to the division but only if he doesn’t get a title shot soon.
For Royval, there’s no way Cejudo is beating him stylistically, especially with his height and reach advantage.
“I really don’t feel like he does [want to return to 125] but I like the idea. If they’re not giving me a title shot, I’d love to be the one that meets him. I would love to be welcoming him back to 125. Everytime I’ve seen him, he looked a little big man, I don’t know if he’s making weight at 125 anymore and I know he struggled before,” Royval said of Cejudo.
“I feel like I’m one of the fastest in the division and he didn’t look that fast to me the last time he fought. So, I’d love to beat him at a125. I would definitely be worried about the takedown but man, there’s a big reach and height advantage coming my way,” he added.
Royval has now won his last two fights since losing to Alexandre Pantoja in a title fight at UFC 296. He remains the No. 1 contender in the flyweight division and he’s hoping to get another crack at UFC gold in his next fight.
Watch Royval’s full interview below:
