The eighth Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight non-title bout will be held in October.
During last Friday’s UFC 304 weigh-in show, the promotion leaked a future matchup between Brandon Royval (16-7) and Tatsuro Taira (16-0) during the broadcast, and on Thursday, both Royval and MMA Junkie confirmed that the bout will be the main event of UFC Fight Night on Oct. 12. The two flyweight contenders will meet at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, with Royval predicting it will be “probably a title eliminator,” noting that he was originally scheduled to face Amir Albazi instead.
Royval lost to Alexandre Pantoja in the championship match in December but bounced back with a dominant win over Brandon Moreno in February. Royval won by narrow split decision, avenging a last-minute knockout loss to the former champion in 2020. Prior to his loss to Pantoja, Royval won by decision over Rogerio Bontorin, then followed it up with first-round stops over Matt Schnell and Matheus Nicolau to earn a shot at gold.
The Japanese fighter is undefeated as a professional, having won all six of his Octagon bouts to date at just 24 years old. Taira made his debut in 2022 with a decision win over Carlos Candelario, before emerging as a rising star in the flyweight division the following year with wins over CJ Vergara and Jesus Santos Aguilar. Two knockout wins over Carlos Hernandez and Alex Perez (the latter due to injury) set the youngster on his path to claiming the belt.
The currently unannounced card for UFC Fight Night on October 12 will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Royval vs. Tyra joins the recently announced strawweight bout Corey McKenna vs. Poliana Viana and the rebooked middleweight bout Brad Tavares vs. Junyoung Park. Other bouts on the lineup include bantamweight Cody Garbrandt vs. Myles Jones and middleweight Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Josh Fremd.
