Colorado’s Royval loses rematch in title bout
The city of Denver will have to wait for a hometown UFC champ.
Brandon Royval lost to Alexandre Pantoja in the rematch between the two fighters on Saturday at TMobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Pantoja retaining the flyweight belt with a unanimous decision.
“( Royval) kept it at (a high) level, he didn’t stop at any time through five rounds,” Pantoja said in the octagon after the fight. “I love that kid, he grew up to try to take this belt. I stood here and defended it.”
Pantoja came out with a blistering pace and earned the bout’s first takedown. Royval spent a lot of time fighting from his back, with Pantoja clearly winning Round 1. That trend continued all night as Pantoja dominated with his grappling in the penultimate bout on UFC 296.
It was the same story in Round 2, with Pantoja controlling ground time and also landing a couple of right-hand hammers to Royval’s jaw. Pantoja took Royval down again quickly in Round 3, and Rovyal reversed control at one point, but the Brazilian quickly escaped.
Royval finally gained momentum with a couple of jabs to Pantoja’s nose, but Pantoja got another takedown to end the round in control. Another takedown
put Royval on his back again in Round 4 as the 31-year-old Chatfield graduate tried to fend off submission holds and get in a position to do damage on the defending champion.
In the last 30 seconds of Round 4, Royval finally got on top of Pantoja and was able to generate some
blows. But it was too little, too late as Royval’s bid to become only the third Colorado-born UFC champ fell short.
In the f inal round, Royval, who has trained at the Englewood MMA gym Factory X since he was 15, took the advice of his coach Marc Montoya and put
pressure on Pantoja with a flurry of punches. But Pantoja, even as he was behind in the final round, got one last takedown to quell Royval’s push.
Royval finished the bout with a clear edge in total strikes (281 to 126) and an advantage in significant strikes (111 to 95), but Pan
toja’s eight takedowns to Royval’s zero was the difference. Pantoja’s win on the card (50- 45, 50- 45, 4946) snapped Royval’s threebout winning streak since Pantoja beat Royval by submission in August 2021.
Earlier in the night, fellow Factory X fighter Dustin Jacoby lost a narrow decision to Alonzo Menifield in a light heavyweight bout.
The first round was fought entirely with both fighters on their feet, and Jacoby landed a few knees and had a 28-14 advantage in significant strikes at the bell. The Fort Morgan native, who spent seven years in Glory Kickboxing before making his way back to the UFC, had the momentum.
But Menifield came back strong in Round 2, despite getting peppered by Jacoby’s left-hand jabs. Menifield drilled Jacoby with a left hook to the jaw to send him to the canvas. Jacoby popped back up but took a couple more bombs from Menifield before re-finding his rhythm in the final minute of the round.
Menifield looked tired to start Round 3 but found his wind and drilled Jacoby with another left hook to knock the former Quincy University quarterback down. That gave Menifield control of the fight, and Jacoby wasn’t able to muster any more significant offense after that.
Jacoby, 35, had the advantage in total strikes (11395) and significant strikes (93- 68), but Menifield’s head shots and takedowns proved to be the difference on the card.
UFC 296 concluded with Leon Edwards retaining his welterweight title with a win by unanimous decision over Colby Covington in the main event.