Brandon Royval wants to be the backup for the interim flyweight title fight after UFC 274 submission win over Matt Schnell

Brandon Royval wants to return at UFC 277 and serve as the backup fighter for the interim flyweight title fight between Brandon Moreno and Kai Kara-France.

Royval is coming off a first-round submission at UFC 274 over Matt Schnell, which was his second in a row. Prior to the fight, Brandon said he wanted the bout to be wild and chaotic, but he admits it was crazier than he expected.

“I didn’t expect Matt to be as wild as he was. He’s usually pretty technical but he walked right to the middle and that was my plan to walk him down and be the chaos,” Royval said to BJPENN.com on Monday. “He was a bit more chaotic than I was and I just matched it from there. I just wanted a firefight, especially being my first time fighting in front of a crowd in the UFC.”

Once the fight ended and Royval heard the crowd’s reaction he knew it was the firefight he expected. Although the scrap was just over two minutes long, after watching the rest of the card he knew there was a good chance he and Schnell would get the ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus.

Although Royval was happy to get the extra $50k, he says he is happier that Matt Schnell got the money due to the fact his mom passed away during his training camp.

“I thought it was the best case scenario. I’m a huge Matt Schnell and I didn’t know that his mom passed and he was dealing with that,” Royval explained. “Hearing that is heartbreaking, and the good news is that we both got the $50k Fight of the Night bonus and neither one of us got hurt and we can both perform very quickly. That 50g’s can help him and his family a ton so it was the best thing that can happen.”

With Brandon Royval not sustaining much damage, he says he wants to make a quick turnaround and plans to be on UFC 277 on July 30. That same card features the interim flyweight title fight between Brandon Moreno and Kai Kara-France – who he submitted back in 2020 – and Royval wants to serve as the backup for the fight.

“I just want to prove I belong in this division and I know they are doing the interim title fight between Moreno and Kara-France, I can be the backup for that,” Royval said. “I just want to get the UFC to know that I’m there and Pantoja and Figueiredo are both injured so I’m ready to be the backup.”

Who would you like to see Brandon Royval fight next?