The bout between Manel Kape and Brandon Royval has been set as the main event for UFC Fight Night on March 1 at UFC Apex in Las Vegas aka UFC Vegas 103. The five-round contest is expected to determine the next challenger for the flyweight title.
Manel Kape (20-7) is fresh off a win by TKO in the third round against Bruno Gustavo da Silva at UFC Tampa in December. With the victory, the 31-year-old Angola native rebounded from a defeat by unanimous decision against Muhammad Mokaev in July, which had snapped his four-fight winning streak.
Former title challenger Brandon Royval (17-7) defeated Tatsuro Taira and Brandon Moreno by split decision in October and February, respectively. In his bid to land the 125-pound belt last December, the 32-year-old native of Denver, Colorado dropped a unanimous decision to Alexandre Pantoja.
The Kape vs Royval matchup was first reported by AgFight. Both fighters also announced the showdown on social media. The promotion has yet to formally confirm the bout.
“He [Brandon Royval] has to be quiet, he won’t fight for the belt. It will be with me, he will do what we are telling him to do. March 1 main event,” Kape wrote.
Royval wrote, “At the end of the day I got the toughest résumé since I signed to the UFC… Y’all going to learn to put some respect on my name. Only top 10 fighters. 4th main event in a row.”
The current UFC Vegas 103 lineup is as follows:
- Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape
- Luana Carolina vs. Montana De La Rosa
- Lucas Almeida vs. Danny Silva
- Cody Brundage vs. Julian Marquez
- William Gomis vs. Hyder Amil
- Charles Johnson vs. Ramazon Temirov
- Sam Patterson vs. Danny Barlow