Brandon Royval faced Alexandre Pantoja for the UFC flyweight title in their co-main event of UFC 296 on December 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Now Royval will face Brandon Moreno at the UFC Fight Night: Flyweight-Main event.

Royval’s unconventional striking combined with his grappling background (he holds a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) will be an interesting matchup for Moreno’s aggressive fighting style. Ahead of their main event bout, let us take a look at Royval’s background.

A closer look at Brandon Royval’s background

Born in Denver, Colorado, on 16th August 1992, Brandon Royval holds American citizenship and has not made his religion public. Not much else is known about the #2 ranked flyweight’s ethnicity, parents, or background. He grew up in ‘The Mile High City’, taking up martial arts at a young age. The 31-year-old was training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai by the age of 15.

Brandon Royval tested himself in the amateur mixed martial arts circuit starting at the age of 18 and managed to rack up a 5-0 record. He fought in his first professional bout a day after turning 21 in 2012, defeating Sammy Rind at Kick Down MMA 102: Rebels.

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And as he sets up for the most important fight of his career so far, the American is going to face the champion who has bested him once. His loss to Pantoja in their first encounter had affected him deeply, and the #2-ranked flyweight has spoken about how it changed how he fought.

Royval credits the Pantoja loss for making him better

Brandon Royval went on a three-fight win streak after his Pantoja loss — his second on the trot in the UFC. And he credited his first fight against ‘The Cannibal’ as having woken him up to one very important lesson: fight smarter. He reconsidered how he fought following the defeat and felt he had become a better, more complete fighter because of it.

“I feel like Alexandre Pantoja woke me up to that. I need to change the way I’m going about things because I’m out here doing all these film studies for no reason… To be completely honest about how I feel now, I’m strategically better… I feel like I’m a complete fighter,” he told ‘MMA Junkie’ after his loss to Pantoja.

What do you think? Will Brandon Royval be able to defeat AlPantoja this time? Let us know in the comments!

Read More: Alexandre Pantoja Family: Mother, Father, Brother- All We Know About UFC Champion’s Personal Life