Brandon Royval reinserted his name on the shortlist of men's flyweight contenders with a hard-fought split decision win over Tatsuro Taira in the main event at UFC Fight Night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Royval had to overcome some adversity in the five-round fight, as the former title challenger was taken down six times and allowed Taira to record over 12 minutes of control time on the mat. But Royval did well enough on the feet and even ended Round 5 in control of Taira on the mat to get his hand raised. This was the first loss of Taira's professional MMA career.
The co-main event also ended in a split decision, as JunYong Park narrowly outpointed Brad Tavares.
Here's everything that went down at UFC Fight Night, including results, top news, highlights and big moments on Saturday.
How to watch the fights
Watch all of the fights on ESPN+: Get ESPN+ here.
There's also FightCenter, which offers live updates for every UFC card.
Brandon Royval hands Tatsuro Taira his first loss in main event
Brandon Royval gets a big win in the main event over a tough opponent in Tatsuro Taira.
Brett Okamoto: Former UFC men's flyweight title challenger Brandon Royval held off one of the most talented prospects in his division on Saturday, as he handed Tatsuro Taira his first professional loss via split decision.
Royval (17-7) outlasted Taira (16-1) in a back-and-forth flyweight contest, in the main event of UFC Fight Night inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Royval hurt Taira multiple times on the feet, but found himself in plenty of bad positions on the mat. Two of the three judges scored the 125-pound fight 48-47 in favor of Royval, while a third had it 48-47 for Taira.
Immediately after the result, Royval, 32, praised the skills of his opponent and referred to him as a future champion, before calling for his own title shot.
UFC Fight Night results
Men's flyweight: Brandon Royval def. Tatsuro Taira
Middleweight: JunYong Park def. Brad Tavares
Welterweight: Chidi Njokuani def. Jared Gooden
Lightweight: Grant Dawson def. Rafa Garcia
Welterweight: Daniel Rodriguez def. Alex Morono
Men's flyweight: Ramazan Temirov def. CJ Vergara
Featherweight: Pat Sabatini def. Jonathan Pearce
Welterweight: Themba Gorimbo def. Niko Price
Heavyweight: Junior Tafa def. Sean Sharaf
Strawweight: Julia Polastri def. Cory McKenna
Men's bantamweight: Cody Haddon def. Dan Argueta
Men's flyweight: Clayton Carpenter def. Lucas Rocha
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