Brandon Royval doesn’t put any stock into his setback vs. Brandon Moreno.
Royval (15-7 MMA, 5-3 UFC) steps in on short notice to rematch former flyweight champion Moreno (21-7-2 MMA, 9-4-2 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night headliner Feb. 24 in Mexico City.
Moreno beat Royval by TKO in November 2020 after a shoulder injury rendered Royval defenseless in the first round. Royval said he entered the fight injured.
“I feel like me and him hit just massive growth,” Royval told Middle Easy about Moreno. “I think even back then, I don’t know what I was ranked, but I know he was the No. 1 contender. It was also a short notice fight for me, too. So there’s a couple similarities there. That being said I was just severely compromised going into that fight.
“My right shoulder was so bad that I really didn’t train for the fight. So, it’s going to be cool just kind of having a training camp and then just being able to use my best weapon, which I think is the jab. It’ll be cool kind of going in there and just not having to worry about any of that stuff.”
Royval will look to rebound from his title loss to flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 296. Unlike against Pantoja, Royval doesn’t have any bitter feelings from his first loss to Moreno. He’s looking at their rematch as a clean slate.
“In my head, I do not count that as a loss,” Royval said. “Like, that sh*t’s crazy. It was like, not a doctor stoppage or whatever it was. The fact that my shoulder happened – like I get it, if he had me in a kimura and busted my shoulder open, that’s him winning. But I was literally on top of the guy like punching him in the face when my shoulder dislocated.”
