Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape to Headline the Final UFC Event of 2025
An exciting flyweight matchup between Brandon Royval and Manel Kape will be the main event of the last UFC event in 2025, scheduled for December 13th in Las Vegas.
Both fighters confirmed the five-round fight through their social media. The UFC Fight Night event will take place at the Apex.
The UFC ranks Royval and Kape as numbers 3 and 7, respectively, in the flyweight division. This will be the third time this year that the UFC has tried to match these two competitors.
Originally, they were expected to face each other on March 1st, but Royval withdrew due to an injury. They were then rescheduled for UFC 317 in June, but Kape was also forced to withdraw, due to an injury.
Royval, training in Denver, accepted a last-minute substitution at UFC 317, facing 23-year-old Joshua Van. Royval lost by decision, in a fight that was awarded Fight of the Night, propelling Van towards a future title opportunity. Before that loss, Royval had achieved consecutive split-decision victories against high-level talents such as Brandon Moreno and Tatsuro Taira.
Kape has won six of his last seven appearances, including a knockout over Asu Almabayev in March.
