Former title challenger Brandon Royval is officially the backup fighter for the main event of UFC 336 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 30. The fighter out of Denver, Colorado, will weigh in on January 29 as the official backup for the flyweight headliner between champion Joshua Van and Manel Kape.
Royval announced the news on The Ariel Helwani Show earlier today. The 34-year-old fan favorite has been involved in many entertaining fights and recently got back on track with a big win over Lone’er Kavanagh. He received his sixth ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus for that performance.
“I’m the backup… At least it keeps me in the title picture for a little bit, and it gets me studying the champion and the contender for the championship.
Hopefully it’s in the eyes of the
Royval was in desperate need of a win after dropping a unanimous decision in June last year against current champion Joshua Van and also a knockout loss against Manel Kape six months later. The fight against Van was chosen as ‘Fight of the Year 2025’ at the World MMA Awards.
“I’m getting in shape right now, starting to lose weight after this week. And yeah, we will see,” Royval told Helwani.
Royval also gave his take on Van vs. Kape and Van vs. Pantoja 2
“If it ends early, I think Kape knocks him out, and if it doesn’t, I think Van is just so hard to pick against that he can get it done.”
“I thought, like the last couple of weeks of it, I was like, I’m favoring Van pretty hard over Pantoja right now. And I mean, he’s just really good. If he can not get some of those first two rounds, I thought Van is very capable of staying calm in the chaos and his cardio and output is out there like one of the best. So once it goes through the third, fourth, and fifth, it is going to be a hard fight for Pantoja to come back,” Royval told Helwani.
“I’m the backup… At least it keeps me in the title picture for a little bit, and it gets me studying the champion and the contender for the championship.
Hopefully it’s in the eyes of the
Royval also explained why he took the backup fight.
“I don’t know what else to do. I’m in a weird situation where it’s like. The people in front of me beat me, and then I beat everybody behind me pretty much. So I’m kind of waiting for a few fights to shape out before I can even have an opponent. I thought Asu Almabayev was a really good callout that I could get. I didn’t expect this foot injury to take me out for as long as it has.”
“And I mean, the backup spot is for sure something I want because there are chances that people pull out of fights and there are chances that someone gets hurt or whatever it is. So it is a situation that at least keeps me in the title picture for a little bit, and it gets me studying the champion and the contender for the championship. So it’s like I’m on the right path, and I’m setting myself kind of aligned with them,” Royval told Helwani.
UFC 336 takes place at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 30th.
Brandon Royval Announces He Will Be Backup Fighter For UFC 336