LAS VEGAS -- Brandon Royval will face a large challenge on Saturday at Apex in Las Vegas when he meets unbeaten Tatsuro Taira in the main event of UFC Vegas 98. Taira is 16-0 with 12 finishes and one of the rising stars in the rapidly improving flyweight division.
Royval, though, doesn't seem all that concerned, though he concedes Taira is an elite opponent. But in his four years in the UFC, he's beaten Nos. 2, 4, 7, 10 and 14 in the current rankings and proven himself repeatedly against the best there is.
But one has to question at least how Royval will approach Saturday's bout because of what he went through last week in Salt Lake City, Utah, prior to UFC 307. He was out on the morning of the card with his teammate, Alexander Hernandez, who competed on the preliminary card.
As they were out to stretch their legs, they saw a shooting in which a man died. Royval followed the shooter from a safe distance to make certain he could ensure the man was captured.
Remarkably, Hernandez went on to fight and win a split decision over Austin Hubbard. But no one knew of what Hernandez and his team saw until after the fight. Royval, though, is fighting in the main event and has been asked about it repeatedly, in virtually every interview he's done as well as at media day at Apex on Wednesday.
“It happened pretty much right in front of us," Royval said Wednesday at media day of the shooting. "I guess the only thing that matters at the end of the day is we’ve seen some crazy shi*t. Alex had locked in [and] won his fight. Kudos to him on that, and it’s a lot to deal with first thing in the morning. It was like 11 a.m. My boy had to report a couple hours later and pretty much anything that could go wrong on that walk, did go wrong.”
Royval, who is ranked No. 1 and hopes to cement another title shot with a win, has had a wild career. He's overcome a lot of adversity in his life to become a championship contender, and Saturday's incident in Salt Lake City was just another chip in the very large pile.
But he has begun to wonder why this kind of trouble seems to follow him around.
“I can’t really speak to anybody or speak to anybody else, but I felt like I’ve found myself in a lot of shitty situations, and I’ve been around a lot of shit that happens,” Royval said. “I feel like I’m a little bit of a shit magnet. So I’m not really unfamiliar with some weird shit like that. But not necessarily a shooting like that, but I did CPR like a week before on another dude in a car accident. So it’s been a crazy month.
"I would stay as far away from me as possible, to be completely honest. It’s been a crazy month. I’ve been threatened by crackheads, done CPR, been in a car accident, and the f*cking shooting and seeing someone die. Anyways. Probably stay away from me this week.”
He's not guaranteed a title shot even if he finishes Taira in the first and is coming off of a win over No. 2 Brandon Moreno in which he fought despite tearing his MCL in the first round. The injury didn't require surgery, but he was compromised from the early moments of the fight while competing in Mexico City at altitude where Moreno got a hero's welcome from the home crowd.
Royval has lost twice to flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja and has split a pair of fights with Moreno. It would be logical since he's already ranked No. 1 to fight Pantoja for the belt if he defeats Taira, but the UFC isn't often eager to pit fighters against each other a third time if the same guy has won the first two.
Royval knows he just has to go out and perform. That he did that despite the debilitating injury he suffered versus Moreno in February has to work in his favor. He said Moreno's coaches quickly recognized that he was injured and alerted Moreno to attack the leg.
"I took that fight on four weeks' notice," Royval told me in a one-on-one interview. " ... I was hoping to out-cardio and outpace him. He was already in Mexico City before the fight was even signed and taken on my behalf. I tore my MCL in the first round, so there's a lot of things that gave me confidence in that fight that I could push through and I could prevail and take it from some of these people.
"[I tore my MCL in the] first two minutes. If anyone goes back and watches it, two minutes in, two-and-a-half minutes in, his coach is screaming out, 'There's something wrong with his leg.' I remember fighting and [saying to myself], 'Dude, shut the f*ck up.' I remember thinking, 'Let him figure this out. This isn't your job.' ... I stopped throwing my left kick and that was my entire game plan."
But he prevailed despite that. So if anyone can overcome witnessing a murder, spend a week doing interviews about it and then still winning, the guy they call the 'Raw Dog' is probably the one. Taira is nearly a 3-1 favorite at DraftKings sportsbook, but Royval has overcome a lot more, so overlook him at your own risk.