Alexandre Pantoja Retains Flyweight Championship with UFC 296 Win vs. Brandon Royval

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Alexandre Pantoja held on to the UFC flyweight championship with a unanimous decision win over Brandon Royval in the co-main event of UFC 296 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The champion came out early to set the pace. An early takedown didn’t work out buy Pantoja still peppered him with some hard punches while mixing in some kicks to the body and legs.

When the two hit the ground, Pantoja once again held the advantage.

Pantoja wobbled Royval with a right hand in the second round before getting the fight ot the mat once again. He was able to control Royval on the ground and bank another round.

The third round finally saw the challenger bring something to the fight. He had several moments in the second half of the third round where he took advantage of a winded Pantoja with a flying knee.

Those moments were short-lived, though. With Pantoja’s breather over, he turned the tide back in his favor. Spending much of the fourth round searching for a submission to end the fight.

Royval did end the fourth by getting top position and raining down a few punches, but it was too little, too late.

That ended up being the theme of the night as he briefly seemed to stun the champion again in the fifth round before Pantoja scored another takedown and cruised to his decision victory.

The win puts Pantoja in rare company as a fighter who has been able to defend the flyweight title. The division has been marked by turnover at the top. Demetrious Johnson was able to rack up 11 consecutive title defenses, but Deiveson Figueiredo and Henry Cejudo are the only other fighters to successfully defend the championship.

Figueiredo is the only other fighter to successfully defend it twice, but one of those defenses as a draw against Brandon Moreno. The two fighters ended up passing the belt back and forth for a few years before Pantoja won it in July with a split-decision win over Brandon Moreno.

Now, it’s Pantoja’s turn to see whether he can fend There’s no shortage of options in a division that has generated multiple contenders.

For Pantoja’s part, he’s less concerned with calling any of them out and making a spectacle of himself. He wants to establish himself as a no-frills champion.

“(I’m) a family guy, humble guy. You’re never going to see some bulls–t about me. I don’t like trash-talking. If you pay to watch my fights, you don’t pay to watch my life. I’m not a reality show. I’m a fighter. I make sure every time I go to the octagon, I’m going to make a big show. I’m going to make sure I’m valuing all the coins,” he told Nolan King and Ken Hathaway of MMA Junkie.

Pantoja will likely get some time to sit back and relax because there are some important fights on deck in the division.

A matchup between Brandon Moreno and rising contender Amir Albazi could wind up being a title eliminator. The two are set to meet February 24, 2024.