Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape Headlines UFC Fight Night 253

A flyweight fight between Brandon Royval and Manel Kape has been unveiled as the main event for UFC Fight Night 253 in Las Vegas on March 1st.

The booking comes just a week after the 31-year-old Kape finished out the year with a TKO finish of Bruno Gustavo da Silva at UFC On ESPN 63.

Both during and after the fight Kape was seeing calling at Dana White to give him a title shot next, and the two are believed to have met backstage following that, but the UFC CEO later said that though he would get a big fight next, it wouldn’t be for the 115lb belt.

That’s understandable given that Kape had lost to Muhammad Mokaev by unanimous decision back in July, but prior to that he had won four fights in a row.

That leaves Kape ranked at No.6 heading into his next fight against the 32-year-old Royval, who may also feel disappointed to have missed out on a title shot given that he’s currently ranked No.1 in the division.

It has only been almost exactly a year since Royval last fought for the belt though, losing to current champion Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision at UFC 296.

However, Royval has since got back to winning ways this year with back-to-back split-decision wins over Brandon Moreno and Tatsuro Taira, and a win over Kape would surely make it difficult for him to be denied a second chance to win the flyweight strap.