Brandon Royval was on the fast track to compete for the flyweight championship in the UFC. His frantic fighting style became a fan favorite, and Royval started to become a sensation very soon. At one point, Royval was just one fight away from earning a title shot in 2020. However, the bout against Brandon Moreno, who went on to become the champion, ended up derailing Royval’s career.
Royval joined the UFC in 2019 with a record of 10-4. In the fight before making his UFC debut, Brandon won the vacant Flyweight Championship. As a result, he had a lot of hype around him before his first UFC fight against Tim Elliott. Not only did he live up to the hype, Royval delivered a ‘Fight of the Night.’ He followed it up with another amazing performance against Kai Kara-France at UFC 253.
But then came the fight against Brandon Moreno. Heading into the fight, Royval was the favorite to get the win. However, with only 1 second left, the referee stopped the fight in the very first round. Fans were confused as to what happened to Brandon “Raw Dog” Royval. Upon replay, it was very evident that Royval’s shoulder was out of the socket.
Brandon Royval talks about his shoulder injury
Brandon Royval dislocated his shoulder in round 1 of the bout against Brandon Moreno in November 2020. After the bout ended, his trainer put his shoulder back into the socket. After that, he had to undergo a prolonged recovery period and even spoke about getting surgery done to repair his injured shoulder.
Speaking about it, Royval added, “The outlook is looking like surgery at this point.” He continued, “I have a torn labrum and I chipped some bones away through repetitive damage of having that torn labrum. It’s looking like surgery at this point, which is very unfortunate. At least I can get this problem fixed a little bit and move on with it.” (h/t via MMA Junkie)
After the injury, it took him nearly 9 months to get back inside the Octagon. On his return, the now 31-year-old fought Alexandre Pantoja in August 2021. However, it resulted in a loss as Pantoja beat Royval in the second round with a submission. Brandon fought Matthew Christopher Schnell next and won the bout via first-round submission.
Afterwards, he took on Matheus Nicolau in April 2023. It was a great matchup on the paper and fans expected it to be a banger. However, Royval shocked the fan base with a first-round KO of Nicolau. It finally earned him a shot at the undisputed title at UFC 296. As fate would have it, he is set to rematch against Alexandre Pantoja, who is the current undisputed champion. Can he avenge his loss, fans will find out on December 16, 2023.