Brandon Royval ‘a go’ to fight Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 301, clear of knee injury

Brandon Royval is looking forward to a trip to Brazil.

On Friday, Royval took to social media to dismiss any concerns about his knee following his recent win over Brandon Moreno and declare that he is ready to challenge flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro.

See Royval’s tweet below:

Knees cleared, beat the #1 ranked fighter on short notice in his own country. I’m not getting held down ever again. UFC 301 is a go for me

Pantoja is expected to be called upon to headline the Rio event, with fellow Brazilian stars Alex Pereira and Charles Oliveira already scheduled for fights at UFC 300 ahead of the May 4 pay-per-view. The reigning flyweight champion already holds two wins over Royval and three wins over Moreno (including an exhibition bout on The Ultimate Fighter 24).

Despite dropping a decision to Pantoja in a title fight this past December, Royval is in good position to earn a third crack at his rival. “Raw Dawg” earned a split decision win over Moreno, a two-time flyweight champion, in the main event of UFC Mexico City to stay in contention, but he later expressed concern over a possible MCL injury suffered in the fight. With that scare behind him, Royval has stated his intent to headline UFC 301.

Also worth keeping an eye on is a pivotal flyweight bout between the undefeated Muhammad Mokaev and Alex Perez, which takes place Saturday at UFC Vegas 87. Mokaev said at media day that he expects an impressive performance to move him to the front of the contender line and that he is also open to making a quick turnaround to fight Pantoja.