Kai “Don’t Blink” Kara-France, the #7 ranked UFC flyweight, entered this bout with a 4-1 record in the UFC, having won his most recent bout against Tyson Nam in February, after suffering his only UFC loss to Brandon Moreno at UFC 245 last December. Brandon “Raw Dawg” Royval submitted veteran Tim Elliot via arm triangle choke at UFC on ESPN 9 in May 2020, in his only UFC fight.
Round 1
Royval began the bout pressuring Kara-France and utilizing a kick heavy attack. In the first 30 seconds of the bout a series of wild exchanges kicked off with Kara-France scoring a knockdown with a perfectly timed right hand counter off a Royval kick, that landed square on Royval’s chin, sending Raw Dawg to the canvas. Royval quickly popped back up. But seconds later both fighters scored simultaneous knockdowns when Kara-France once more moved forward and landed a right hand as Royval landed a spinning elbow. As Kara-France began to stand back up, Royval landed a big knee to Kara-France’s neck as Kara-France had one knee on the canvas when the knee landed. Kara-France was in the process of shooting for a takedown when he was truck with the knee and was somehow able to maintain forward momentum and drive through Royval to secure the takedown. Royval immediately showed good jiu-jitsu by locking up Kara-France’s right arm in an omoplata submission attempt. A wild an entertaining first minute of the fight!
Royval was slickly able to transition from the omoplata attempt to secure top position. Royval was able to advance position to mount briefly before Kara-France was able to recover half-guard. Royval, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt showed high level grappling before the fight returned to the feet with a couple minutes left in the opening round. Immediately after returning to the feet Royval put the pressure back on Kara-France and landed a beautiful spinning backfist as he rotated through a left high kick. Royval then landed a beautiful combination of strikes as he started with a couple kicks and then fired off four successive right hands.
Royval was non-stop action as he landed a hard inside leg kick followed by a left body kick, followed by a right knee to the chin that sent Kara-France back to the canvas with Royval’s second knockdown of the round. Kara-France was clearly rocked from the strike. Royval then wrapped his left arm around Kara-France’s neck but Kara-France was able to briefly gain top position while Royval attempted a guillotine with his head and back up against the fence. Royval, after bailing on the guillotine attempt, used a nifty double ankle swweep to escape bottom position. With 40 seconds left in the round, Kara-France landed two nice hooks to the head. Royval subsequently countered an outside low kick with a solid straight left hand by the southpaw. Both fighters landed heavy shots as the round drew to a close.
Seattle Fights round score – 10-9 Royval
Round 2
Royval began the second round with creative combinations, putting pressure on Kara-France and landing some nice knee strikes. With just over 30 seconds expired in the round, Kara-France shot for a takedown when Royval applied a tight guillotine choke from standing position. Royval jumped guard in the standing position as he held onto the guillotine before Kara-France fell forward into Royval’s guard. Royval already had applied a tight squeeze, but the extra leverage he applied after changing to a figure four lock from guard produced the tap from Kara-France.
Outstanding fight by Royval as he showed excellent striking and jiu-jitsu in just his second fight in the UFC against the #7 ranked flyweight. It looks like there will be big things to come from Royval.
Official result – Royval defeats Kara-France by submission (guillotine choke) – Round 2 (0:48)