Written by Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC
It’s just not in Brandon Royval’s nature to back down from a challenge.
That’s effectively the message the one-time title contender conveyed after his unanimous decision loss to Joshua Van at UFC 317 after the flyweights put on arguably the Fight of the Year. The back-and-forth war ended in dramatic fashion with Van scoring a knockdown and Royval just barely surviving to the final horn in the third round.
Originally scheduled to face Manel Kape on the card, Royval took a big risk accepting the fight against a much lower ranked opponent like Van but he acknowledged that’s just how he’s built.
“A tale of ‘the scorpion and the frog,’” Royval wrote on Instagram. “Some individuals are driven by uncontrollable instincts, even when those instincts lead to self-destructive or harmful actions.
“Wish I could change but I’ve always been this [way] thanks for those who have supported me along the way.”
Much like the classic fable where the scorpion stings a frog while crossing a river together — even though that means its ultimate demise — Royval doesn’t blink when offered an opportunity like the one he had on Saturday night.
The same goes with his performance because Royval was mashing down on the gas pedal from the first exchange until the very last.
Royval landed 215 significant strikes across three rounds while throwing 468 total strikes. The combined 419 strikes Royval and Van landed set a new UFC record for a three-round fight while also obviously setting the same record for the flyweight division.
It was also the first time in UFC history where both fighters connected with at least 200 significant strikes and the flyweights did that with only 15 minutes to work.
The record setting performance still ended with Royval on the losing end of the decision so that’s definitely a tough pill to swallow but he deserves all the flowers for that kind of performance.
As an added bonus, UFC CEO Dana White revealed after the event that he was paying Royval both his show and win money along with the Fight of the Night bonus he earned for UFC 317.
The loss drops Royval to 5-2 in his past seven fights and his climb to receive another title shot starts again, although he still remains one of the top ranked flyweights in the sport.