Yesterday, Sports Illustrated was the first to report that the UFC was heading back to Kansas City in April. The headliner is the highly anticipated featherweight matchup between former champion Max Holloway and surging top contender Arnold Allen.
In addition to breaking the location news, SI also reported a major flyweight fight that’s heading for the main card of the event. Top contenders Brandon Royval (14-6) and Matheus Nicolau (19-2-1) are set to face each other at the April 15th event at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
This fight pairs together the fourth and fifth ranked contenders and could easily be a title eliminator in the flyweight division. It’s already set that Brandon Moreno will be facing Alexandre Pantoja in his first title defense now that the series with Deiveson Figueiredo has completed. With Figgy moving up to 135, only Kai Kara-France ranks above these two contenders.
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Brandon Royval will enter the octagon in April riding a very impressive two-fight winning streak. The first win being a split decision win over Rogerio Bontorin and then a decisive submission win over Matt Schnell. The Schnell win was incredibly impressive.
Speaking of impressive wins over Matt Schnell, that’s exactly what Matheus Nicolau did in December. Nicolau dominated and finished Schnell in the second round. That win moved him to a perfect 4-0 inside the UFC and the wins are incredibly impressive.
In his short time inside the octagon, he has wins over Manel Kape, Tim Elliot, David Dvorak, and then Schnell. These two are on a collision course on their way to a flyweight title fight. UFC fans in KC should be pumped about this one.