UFC flyweight Brandon Royval disapproves of Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno 4, advocates former rival for title shot (Exclusive)
Brandon Royval has no interest in seeing Deiveson Figueiredo fight Brandon Moreno for the fourth time.
The top two flyweights are set to make UFC history as they will collide in a rare tetralogy at UFC 283 early next year. There's a massive buzz surrounding the upcoming matchup as Figueiredo and Moreno delivered exciting fights in their past three meetings.
However, Royval believes that the tetralogy is unwarranted. The way he sees it, fellow top contender Alexandre Pantoja deserves a title shot over any other flyweight.
During an interview with Andrew Whitelaw of Sportskeeda MMA, Royval expressed his disapproval of the upcoming flyweight title fight:
"It's a great fight, but I mean, not really. I don't want to see them fight four times. I think Pantoja's obviously earned that title shot. I think Pantoja kind of got ripped off when they gave Kai Kara-France the title shot... The interim title shot made no sense to me in general anyways. 'Cause it's like why are we doing this?"
Royval added that the first meeting between the two should have been scored in favor of Figueiredo rather than a draw. With that in mind, the 30-year-old thinks Figueiredo leads the series 2-1 as far as he's concerned.
"And for me it's like Deiveson won twice already and Brandon Moreno did win that second time more decisively, but it was like, I think Deiveson won the first and the last fight."
Nonetheless, Royval was happy to give his official prediction for the fight. He believes it's highly likely for Moreno to regain the title and jokingly suggested that a fifth fight could be ahead.
Watch our exclusive interview with Brandon Royval below:
Brandon Royval says he was "playing with fire" taking up Brandon Moreno fight
'Raw Dog' recounted his TKO loss to Brandon Moreno at UFC 255.
Brandon Royval headed into the matchup with a four-fight winning streak, which was snapped by Moreno. Looking back, Royval admitted that he made a bad decision accepting the fight despite being injured:
"Like I said, I was playing with fire the whole entire time," said Brandon Royval. "I knew what I was working with and I knew I had kind of like a bum shoulder and I needed that surgery and all that stuff."
Fortunately, Royval is back in his winning ways after back-to-back victories over Rogerio Bontorin and Matt Schnell. He'll get a chance to extend his streak to three wins when he takes on Askar Askarov at UFC Fight Night 212.
Viewers in India can watch the LIVE coverage of UFC Fight Night – Grasso vs. Araujo on SONY TEN 2 (English), SONY TEN 3 (Hindi) & SONY TEN 4 (Tamil & Telugu) channels at 4:30 am IST on 16th October 2022.