Longtime flyweight contender Brandon Royval, currently ranked No. 3 at 125 pounds, has been named backup fighter for the upcoming title fight between Joshua Van and Manel Kape, scheduled for the UFC 336 co-main event on Sat., Jan. 30, 2027 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
That doesn’t come as a surprise considering Kape’s history of missing weight.
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“I’m the backup,” Royval told Ariel Helwani. “At least it keeps me in the title picture for a little bit, and it gets me studying the champion and the contender for the championship. Hopefully it’s in the eyes of the UFC too, like, ‘All right, we’re up next.’ They haven’t told me anything specific, just that I’m the backup. I think that the Van fight will always be on the table for me just because how good of a fight it was, and we broke a lot of records or whatever it is.”
Royval suffered back-to-back losses to Van and Kape in 2025.
That said, Royval and Van set multiple striking records in their “Fight of the Night” at UFC 317, a bout that “Raw Dog” took on short notice. UFC 336 will be headlined by the interim welterweight title fight pitting Carlos Prates against Michael Morales, with the winner moving on to face Islam Makhachev.
