It’s an interesting time to be Brandon Royval. Sure, training camp is still training camp, complete with all the blood, sweat and tears associated with it. But at the end of the tunnel this time is a world championship fight and a chance to even the score with the last man to beat him, flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja. Throw in more media obligations and pulls on his time than ever before, and well, it’s an interesting time to be Brandon Royval.
“Sometimes it's like everything perfectly normal,” he said. “And then I'll have those weird realizations. I'm like, ‘Dang, my next fight's for a belt.’ And that kind of puts me out a little bit sometimes, too. So it's a little bit of both. The grind’s always something I'm going to be doing, no matter what. But I'll have moments where I'll be in the middle of practice and think about it. I'm like, ‘This is crazy.’”
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Then he gets kicked in the head by one of his Factory X teammates.
“Yeah, exactly,” Royval laughs. “But there's not too much overthinking on my side of things. I'm always grateful that there’s that little bit a part of me, especially when it comes to fighting, that I just love training. And if I wasn't fighting for the belt, if I wasn't fighting in the UFC, this is what I'd be doing anyway.”
That love of the game is evident every time Royval steps into the Octagon, and while that first made him a fan favorite, now it’s made him a fighter one win away from a world championship. That’s quite a ride for a young man who arrived in the Octagon during a pandemic, weathered injuries and two losses, and proceeded to run off a three-fight winning streak that earned him a shot at the Brazilian, who submitted him in two rounds in the summer of 2021. Some would say that fight means nothing more than two years later. Royval doesn’t agree.
Brandon Royval Athlete Profile
“It means a lot, man,” he said. “I feel like there was a lot of knowledge gained for me after the fight, and I feel like there's things you could take away from it, and I hope he's taking away a lot away from it. That being said, I think not only does it mean a lot for my pride, but it means a lot of adjustments I needed to make that Pantoja created for me and a lot of growth because of Pantoja. So I feel like it does mean a lot; at least it means a lot to me.”

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If we’re being fair, the 31-year-old has shown more patience since that first bout, even if the “King of Chaos” made his reappearance in his Fight of the Night war with Matt Schnell in May of 2022. But in wins over Rogerio Bontorin and Matheus Nicolau, he picked his shots, let the fight come to him, and used technique over pure aggression. Will that remain part of his toolbox come Saturday night?
“I feel like I've worked pretty hard at adjusting my style to small degrees in all these last fights leading up to Pantoja,” Royval said. “But I feel like still being me is going to get the job done, for sure. And doing what I need to do and having a little bit of strategy isn't necessarily not me, either. I'm a very skilled fighter, and that's one thing that I was downplaying on myself. If I look back, I wish someone would've told me that a little bit earlier in my UFC career. Like, ‘Yo, bro, you could beat these guys on skills and technique.’ Especially with someone like Pantoja, where I feel like he has a very good jiu-jitsu game. But striking wise, and for the most part in his career, he comes across as a ‘take it to you’ type of guy. And playing into his chaotic style and my chaotic style, and us hitting a Tasmanian devil type of fight was a horrible idea in that first fight.”
WATCH: UFC Flyweight Champion Alexandre Pantoja Breaks Down The 125-Pound Division | UFC 296 Embedded | All Episodes
That was then. This is now. And while there is always the chance that one punch from Pantoja can kick Royval into chaos mode, there is a distinct feeling that this time, the Coloradan is going to be an older and wiser fighter in his first championship bout.
“I feel like these last three fights that I had leading up to this, there's been a lot of adjustments to finally master a style that I already do in the gym perfectly,” he said. “But when I go out there and the fight's on, it's on for me. But I feel like I've finalized what the best style for me is, and I'm excited to show it. I'm excited to change the narrative on me, too. I feel like people don't see me as a high-level, skilled fighter. They just see me as a brawler. And that's absolutely not true.”
Twenty-five minutes of lay and pray from Brandon Royval? Come on, you know better than that.
FREE FIGHTS: Leon Edwards vs Nate Diaz | Colby Covington vs Jorge Masvidal | Alexandre Pantoja vs Brandon Royval 1 | Brandon Royval vs Matt Schnell
“I'm always going to look for the kill,” he said. “That's a hundred percent me. I'm never going to try to win a decision in my life; that's just not going to be who I am. That's not how I've ever been. I'm always going to look to go finish somebody. That being said, I’ve got 25 minutes to fight this guy. I don't even have to try to finish it in the first minute, I don't need to try to finish it in the second round, I don't need to try to finish it in the first round. I don't need any of that. I can marinate, slow cook a little bit. Compared to the style that I used to have, I'd go broil somebody and then burn myself in the process of all that. Now I can slow cook somebody and have a little fun with it, play with my food a little bit before I decide to take a bite.”
UFC 296: Edwards vs Covington took place live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 16, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!