Flyweight Title Elminator Headlines Fall Fight Night at the Apex
A top five Flyweight showdown will take the marquee for the UFC Fight Night at the Apex October 12th.
The UFC has announced former title challenger, number one contender Brandon “Raw Dawg” Royval will square off with unbeaten, number five ranked Tatsuro Taira in a five-rounder. Factory X’s “Raw Dawg” will look to be the first person to blemish the perfect record of the 24-year-old Japanese phenom.
These are two of the divisions most aggressive finishers, Royval with 13 finishes in 16 wins with 9 submissions and Taira having 12 finishes in his 16 wins with 7 by submissions.
Royval went the distance with Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja last December in the co-main event of UFC 296. A learning experience that Royval used earning a split decision over former champion Brandon Moreno just two months later. The title shot had been earned after three straight wins that included submitting Matt Schnell and knocking out Matheus Nicolau.
Taira joined the UFC in 2022, securing six wins in that time. Taira built a solid resume with his first five wins inside the octagon. Three of the wins coming by stoppage including submissions of CJ Vergara & Jesus Aguilar. In June in his first UFC main event Taira took the back of former title challenger Alex Perez throwing his weight in a never-before-seen way causing a fight ending knee injury to Perez. The wildly creative fighter now appears to be within reach of title shot.
In the co-main event, it’s also a battle of finishers who favor submission as Grant Dawson battles Rafa Garcia. Dawson has won four of his last five fights with two wins by rear naked choke. Garcia has also won four of five coming off adding a decision win over Clay Guida to his resume.
Fight Night Line Up
- Flyweight: Brandon Royval (16-7) vs. Tatsuro Taira (16-0)
- Lightweight: Grant Dawson (21-2-1) vs. Rafa Garcia (16-3)
- Welterweight: Niko Price (16-7) vs. Themba Gorimbo (13-4)
- Welterweight: zChidi Njokuani (23-10) vs. Jared Goooden (23-9)
- Middleweight: Brad Tavares (20-9) vs. Jun Yong Park (17-6)
- Featherweight: Jonathan Pearce (14-6) vs. Pat Sabatini (18-5)
- Flyweight: Clayton Carpenter (7-0) vs. Lucas Rocha (17-1)
- Middleweight: Josh Fremd (11-6) vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan (12-6)
- Women’s Strawweight: Cory McKenna (8-3) vs. Polyana Viana (13-7)
- Flyweight: CJ Vergara (12-5-1) vs. Ramazonbek Temirpov (17-2)
- Heavyweight: Chris Barnett (23-8) vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta (12-1)
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