Top-ranked flyweight contender Brandon Royval won’t be returning in a little under a month.
Royval has withdrawn from his March 1st booking against Manel Kape, with an undisclosed injury forcing him to be pulled from the matchup. The bout was expected to headline a “Fight Night” card from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Royval didn’t specify what has forced him out of the pivotal upcoming fight at flyweight, although he stressed the severity of the setback in a recent social media post.
“I’m facing an injury that has me questioning when I’ll be able to train again,” he said this week. “This is absolutely a fight I think needs to happen for the flyweight division but as of right now competing has been ill advised.”
The fight gave Royval a chance continue his strong run since losing to UFC Flyweight Champion Alexandre Pantoja in late 2023. He earned back-to-back five-round wins in 2024, defeating Brandon Moreno and Tatsuro Taira last year to remain as the first-place fighter in the flyweight standings.
The cancelled bout also means that Kape will miss out on a chance to skyrocket up the rankings at 125 pounds.
The former RIZIN Bantamweight Champion is riding the momentum of a dominant victory over Bruno Silva in December, out-landing the Brazilian on the feet before finding a finish in the third round.
While ranked down at sixth, a victory against Royval would have comfortably pushed Kape into the division’s top five and would likely make him a front-runner for a shot at Pantoja. He won’t be getting such a high-stakes fight for now, at least.
It’s now planned that Kape will meet eighth-ranked Asu Almabayev in the upcoming headliner, per reports from Sportilinet and MMA Fighting. Almabayev was previously booked to meet former title challenger Steve Erceg earlier on the same show but has been shifted to a five-round clash in the main event instead. It’s unclear if Erceg will receive a new opponent for the card.
Almabayev, a prospect from Kazakhstan, has yet to lose since entering the UFC roster in 2023. The 31-year-old most recently got past Matheus Nicolau via decision, marking his fourth win in the promotion.
The new matchup sees Kape go from a fighter aiming to climb the standings to a talent looking to defend his position on the leaderboard. For either Kape or Almabayev, however, the booking is a chance to score their first-ever five-round UFC victory.
Here’s an updated look at UFC’s March 1st card following the recent shake-up:
Bout 12: Manel Kape (20-7) vs. Asu Almabayev (21-2) (Flyweight)
Bout 11: Cody Brundage (10-6) vs. Julian Marquez (9-5) (Middleweight)
Bout 10: William Gomis (14-2) vs. Hyder Amil (10-0) (Featherweight)
Bout 9: Nasrat Haqparast (17-5) vs. Esteban Ribovics (14-1) (Lightweight)
Bout 8: Austen Lane (13-5) vs. Mario Pinto (9-0) (Heavyweight)
Bout 7: Montana De La Rosa (13-9-1) vs. Luana Carolina (11-4) (Flyweight)
Bout 6: Lucas Almeida (15-3) vs. Danny Silva (9-1) (Featherweight)
Bout 5: Danny Barlow (9-0) vs. Sam Patterson (12-2-1) (Welterweight)
Bout 4: Andrea Lee (13-10) vs. JJ Aldrich (13-7) (Flyweight)
Bout 3: Charles Johnson (17-6) vs. Ramazan Temirov (18-2) (Flyweight)
Bout 2: Douglas Silva de Andrade (29-6) vs. John Castaneda (21-7) (Bantamweight)
Bout 1: Ricardo Ramos (17-6) vs. Chepe Mariscal (17-6) (Featherweight)
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