First things first I love Joshua Van 🇲🇲 His fighting style is awesome and I think he is absolutely a future champ and destined to be at the top of flyweight for a very long time. That being said… I also absolutely F with Royval heavily. I mean this guy is just cool no better way to put it. Flyweight gangster and the BMF of the division willing to fight anyone anywhere anytime. Lowkey this fight is for flyweight BMF title as both these guys don’t give a F how much notice they get for a fight as evident from Royval taking on Brandon Moreno on 3 weeks notice in Mexico and beating him, absolutely cardio mogging the mexican despite being the guy who didn’t have a full camp. Joshua Van has already had 9 fights in the UFC, incredible activity from the guy and has had some great fights with some decent flyweights. Battering Cody Durden for 3 rounds, decent scrap with Charles Johnson and showed off his great grappling defence against Rei Tsyruya. None of these guys are Van has faced are anywhere near the level that Brandon Royval is, this guy is the 2nd best flyweight in the world and its not that close… Pantoja just has this guys number. His striking and cardio is probably the best in the division and he can sure take a punch as his chin and recovery is also very strong. The only thing I do see favouring Van is that it isn’t a 5 rounder as I do feel a 5 round fight always favours a guy like Brandon Royval who has endless cardio and throws so many strikes per round. That doesn’t change the fact that I think Rawdawg very well could knock Joshua Van out, his chin doesn’t seem to be bad by any means but he did get slumped by Charles Johnson who isn’t that great. BUT he has improved immensely from that fight so its hard to hold that loss against him too much and everyone knows that getting chinned randomly when you are winning is a great base for prospects in mma. Joshua Van did show alot more power in his last fight against Bruno Silva but I do not see much chance as to him finishing Royval. Way more likely to see a Royval finish and despite him not finishing his last couple of opponents, do not be misjudged by this as Royval is one of the best finishers in the UFC and can catch you from out of nowhere just ask Kai Kara-France… My pick is Brandon Royval by TKO in round 1 I truly believe this isn’t going to be close and Rawdawg is going to quite literally rawdawg Joshua Van in a rather eye-opening fight for many fans. Royval is super hungry to make a statement to get a 3rd shot at Pantoja and this is definitely his best shot at it. If this fight is close he probably still won’t get another title shot so he will be going out there for a quick night and I trust that he will do it. Add on top of that Van taking the fight on short notice, a quick weight cut after doing one 3 weeks prier and Royval training for a striker in Kape and yeah its really not looking good for everyone’s favourite flyweight prospect right now. Would be absolutely delighted to be proved wrong even though I also love Royval but I just don’t see it. How on earth has Van opened as the favourite the disrespect to Royval is crazy. Also get this shi off of the prelims this is literally so featured fight worthy (I think its been moved to featured fight but I don’t know if that’s true) Either way super hyped for this one, flyweight hardly ever gets the fans hyped like this fight has. Who y’all got?