Brandon Royval reveals Alexandre Pantoja will be in attendance for his UFC Mexico City main event against Brandon Moreno

UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja will be in attendance for Saturday’s UFC Mexico City main event which sees Brandon Moreno rematch Brandon Royval.

Moreno was supposed to headline the card against Amir Albazi, but the latter was forced to withdraw due to an injury and was replaced by Royval. With Moreno and Royval currently ranked in the top three, the winner of the main event could get the next title shot, despite both men coming off decision losses to Pantoja.

The likelihood of the winner getting the next title shot only increased on Wednesday as Brandon Royval revealed on The MMA Hour that Alexandre Pantoja is in Mexico to watch their main event fight.

“I thought for sure if Brandon Moreno wins, even though we are coming off the same loss, they will give it to him. But, I didn’t think they necessarily would give it to me, but I just found out Pantoja is here, Pantoja is going to be in the audience. So, maybe there’s going to be something a little extra to fight for besides the number one contender fight and all that. I just found out Pantoja is here, so maybe there is something,” Royval said.

It would be a bit of a surprise if Brandon Royval did get an immediate title shot with a win over Brandon Moreno at UFC Mexico City due to the fact he lost a one-sided decision to Alexandre Pantoja back in December. So, should Royval win, Pantoja would be fighting ‘Raw Dawg’ in back-to-back fights, despite the first one being lopsided.

Yet, before Brandon Royval can think about a potential title shot he will need to beat Brandon Moreno in the rematch on Saturday. Royval enters the fight as a sizeable betting underdog as he’s a +235 underdog, which implies just a 29.9% chance of winning the scrap.

Royval is currently 15-7 as a pro and is 5-3 in the UFC. He’s coming off the decision loss to Pantoja back in the co-main event of UFC 296 for the flyweight title. To earn the title shot, Royval was on a three-fight winning streak with back-to-back first-round stoppages over Matheus Nicolau and Matt Schnell.