Brandon Royval joined Michael Fiedel on this episode of Fighting Words on June 11. After submitting Tim Elliott in his UFC debut on May 30, Royval cashed in an extra $50,000 after Dana White awarded “Fight of the Night” honors to the pair.
The 27-year-old still feels like it’s all too good to be true and remains hard on himself about his performance against Elliott. Although he got the win, he was disappointed because he believes he could have done even better. As for the bonus $50k, Royval believes it was merely a kind gesture from Dana White and comments that he’s now ‘the only one happy with the payroll in the UFC at the moment.’ He says that he now owes Dana White big and he’ll ‘put on a brawl in his next fight.’
After quitting his job at a longterm facility for juveniles, Royval is now committed to fighting full-time and ready to invest in himself. He wants a quick turnaround, but also wouldn’t mind a longer wait as it’ll allow him to make the required improvements to compete with the higher-ranked contenders in the flyweight division. He believes the flyweight title is currently up for grabs as no one really stands out as the best in the division.
And by this time next year, Royval hopes to be in title contention.