Brandon Royval is not underestimating his opponent, Tatsuro Taira, ahead of their upcoming UFC Fight Night main event.
In fact, the one-time flyweight title challenger thinks Taira will one day be on top of the sport … except that time will have to wait a while.
“I think that’s a future champion you guys are looking at,” Royval recently told Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter. “When I look at Tatsuro Taira, I think he has the ability to be champion one day.”
Royval and Taira share the same manager and have trained together in the past, but the two talented flyweights will meet face to face in the Octagon on Saturday at the Apex in Las Vegas.
“I’ve trained with him a lot of times and, like I said, the kid’s good I just think there’s levels to this sport and right now I’m at a different level than he is,” Royval continued. “It’s unfortunate that we have to meet up (at this time) because I would love to help that kid win a belt but as of right now it’s my time and afterwards I wanna help him win a belt.”
At 16-0 as a pro and 6-0 since joining the UFC, Taira has already climbed to No. 5 in the contender rankings at just 24 years of age.
The next challenger for current 125-pound champion Alexandre Pantoja has not yet been determined by the organization.
There has been some speculation that recent UFC signee Kai Asakura could get a title shot in his UFC debut. The Japanese star joined the UFC roster in June but has not yet booked his first bout.
Royval is ranked as the official No. 1 contender in the men’s flyweight division, however, he has two previous losses to Pantoja. The most recent time was a unanimous decision during their UFC 296 title fight roughly 10 months ago.
The 32-year-old bounced back with a five-round split decision win over former champion Brandon Moreno this past February in Mexico City.
Royval hinted that he plans to call out either Asakura or Pantoja if all goes to plan and he becomes the first fighter to defeat Taira. He added that a main event title eliminator bout between him and Asakura in Japan is something he’d be interested in.