Within the UFC 296 co-main occasion, Alexandre Pantoja regarded to make the primary protection of his flyweight championship and had to take action towards acquainted foe Brandon Royval. After 5 rounds of intense motion, Pantoja took a unanimous determination on the power of takedowns and positional dominance on the bottom.
Royval was clearly improved from his August 2021 submission loss to Pantoja however finally couldn’t do sufficient to cease Pantoja’s takedowns and was ineffective at escaping from backside positions as soon as Pantoja was in a position to put the battle on the ground.
Pantoja got here out to begin the battle like a brand new champion trying to firmly set up his place atop the division. Royval survived the first-round blitz, even when he was taken down and mounted.
Royval was in a position to do some stable work on the toes utilizing his size to work behind his jab, however Pantoja’s takedowns and high management continued to nullify Royval’s makes an attempt to work on the toes. As well as, Royval regarded bothered when Pantoja was in a position to land strikes within the stand-up.
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In Spherical 3, Pantoja appeared close to to locking in an arm-triangle choke, however Royval rolled by after which scrambled to his toes after Pantoja tried to take the again. After failing to complete the submission, Pantoja appeared to have depleted a lot of his fuel tank, although he once more was in a position to rating a takedown, take mount and spend a lot of the next spherical on Royval’s again with a physique triangle locked in.
Royval continued to flee dangerous positions, ending Spherical 4 on high and delivering some floor and pound however was pressured to return to his nook earlier than the ultimate spherical to be implored by his workforce to make one thing occur in Spherical 5 to turn into world champion.
Royval took his nook’s calls for to coronary heart, popping out for the ultimate spherical with a continuing flurry of strikes as an exhausted Pantoja regarded to discover a method to survive to what appeared to be a simple win on the scorecards. Pantoja managed to climate the storm and scored yet one more takedown halfway by the spherical, pinning Royval to the canvas and grinding away the ultimate moments of the battle.
After 5 rounds of championship motion, the official scorecards learn 50-45, 50-45, 49-46, all for Pantoja.
“This battle was possibly too boring,” Pantoja mentioned after the battle. “I do not like to try this battle however Brandon Royval is a really robust fighter. I wanted to maintain this belt for my household.”
Elsewhere on the cardboard, Shavkat Rakhmonov staked his declare to a title shot with a submission win over Stephen Thompson. Rakhmonov continues to take care of an ideal ending fee in 18 professional fights. Plus, Paddy Pimblett poured it on Tony Ferguson early and by no means backed off as he bounced again from harm to get the win whereas Ferguson dropped his seventh consecutive battle. And Josh Emmett delivered some of the devastating knockouts in latest reminiscence towards Bryce Mitchell to open the PPV.
