UFC No. 1 Contender Pulls Out Of Huge Main Event Clash

UFC men’s flyweight No. 1 contender Brandon Royval is injured and has been forced to pull out of his main-event clash with Manel Kape on March 1 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Royval made the announcement on his Instagram account and promised more details to come on his YouTube channel.

“Unfortunately I’m going to have to pull out of my fight,” Roycal wrote in the caption of the IG post that showed a big “X” through the fight poster featuring him and Kape. “I’m sorry to Manel Kape and my fans. I’m facing an injury that has me questioning when I’ll be able to train again. This is absolutely a fight I think needs to happen for the flyweight division but as of right now competing has been ill advised. Love y’all and I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I’ll have more details on my YouTube this week.”

Royval is the No. 1 contender, but he isn’t fighting for the title because he has already faced and lost to current champion Alexandre Pantoja twice in the last four years. Most recently, Pantoja successfully defended the title against him in December 2023, winning by unanimous decision.

Since then, Royval has turned back top contenders like former champion Brandon Moreno and rising star Tatsuro Taira, and Kape was scheduled to be the next man up. However, that fight won’t be happening—at least not anytime soon.

Kape is seemingly looking to pivot, and another ranked flyweight, Charles Johnson, has thrown his hat into the ring in hopes of replacing Royval. Johnson is currently ranked No. 12 and is scheduled to face Ramazan Temirov on the same card. The two men briefly communicated on X and seemed to come to an agreement, but it will be up to the UFC to make it official.

If that happens, the UFC could be looking for another opponent to face Temirov, a dangerous up-and-coming 24-year-old. Stay tuned, as a resolution for that situation will likely come soon.

Looking ahead to the weekend, the UFC is in Australia for its second pay-per-view event of 2025. UFC 312 will feature a pair of world championship fights.

Dricus du Plessis will attempt to defend his UFC middleweight title against the man he dethroned in Australia a year ago, Sean Strickland. In the co-main event, Zhang Weili will defend her UFC women’s strawweight title against top contender Tatiana Suarez. Here is a look at the entire card.