Despite many believing that Brandon Royval doesn’t stand a chance against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 296, Brandon Moreno thinks the challenger can beat the champ if he fights “smart.”
Many are doubting the chance of “Raw Dawg” defeating the flyweight champion, especially after “The Cannibal” defeated him in 2021 via submission. Deiveson Figueiredo earlier expressed support for Pantoja, saying there is a 95% chance for the champ to succeed in defending the belt.
Nonetheless, Moreno, who is currently serving as an opponent backup for the fight, believes that Royval has a chance of winning the bout. “The Assassin Baby” already faced the two. Although he lost to the current champ twice (with the last allowing Pantoja to steal the belt), Moreno defeated Royval in 2020 via TKO. Despite that, he views the former opponent as a dangerous enemy for anyone, including The Cannibal.
“It’s very interesting,” said Moreno during an interview with ESPN MMA’s Marc Raimondi. “I hear a lot of people… they wanna give me support or something (by saying), ‘Man, I don’t think Royval can beat Pantoja,’ or whatever. Man, to be honest, I think Royval is very dangerous,” Moreno said. “He’s southpaw, unorthodox, changes stance, very long, has good distance.”
In line with this, Moreno shared that Royval could be careless sometimes, suggesting that the fighter can prevent this to win his upcoming fight.
“The real problem here is the fight IQ,” Moreno explained. “He is very crazy sometimes and puts some troubles in the fight when he doesn’t need to be there,” Moreno continued. “If Brandon Royval can put control in his mind and he can be smart in the middle of the fight, he definitely can win.”
