UFC Fight Night 244 was held in the Apex in Las Vegas, NV on Saturday Oct. 12th.
Round one saw Brandon Royval and Tatsuro Taira trading a few blows, and taira attempting a grapple. Taira remained unsuccessful with grapples at the beginning of the first round, Royval gained the upper hand by landing a few strikes to Taira’s face. Taira managed to bring Royval down in the last thirty seconds of the round. This maneuver did not give Taira the advantage as Royval escaped his hold almost immediately. Round two opened with Royval taking the initiative to find several openings in Taira’s defense. Taira did not repeat his performance in the first round; he found an opening managed to grab Royval from behind, bringing him down into a hold. Royval struggled to break this hold for the majority of the second round. He did not escape Taira’s grapple until the last ten seconds of the second round. Round three opened with both fighters coming out aggressively; Taira tried to capitalize on the momentum of round two, and Royval tried to regain control. Taira began by trying to grapple on Royval, to once again take Royval to the ground.
Royval certainly did not want to repeat the last round, so he resisted managing to break free. Taira’s grapple attempts came back to bite him as he looked quite winded, while Royval moved in striking him serval times. Taira managed to get Royval into another hold, but it was shortlived as Royval managed to quickly slip free landing numerous blows to Taira’s head before breaking away. Taira continually went for Royval’s legs, but each attempt failed as Royval slipped free and bashed Taira to his head and sides. Taira attempted a few more times, and in the final twenty seconds of the match he managed to hold Royval until the final horn. In the opening of the fourth round both fighters looked quite winded, the accumulated damage slowing both. Taira traded a few strikes with Royval, and then launched at him taking Rovyal to the fence. Royval tried to escape, but Taira managed to bring him to the ground and hold him from behind. Taira holding Royval, constantly adjusted his hold as Royval resisted. Royval struggled to break free, but only managed to get free in the last five seconds of the match.
Royval took charge in the fifth round as he reversed Taira’s first grapple attempt of the match, throwing him and separating himself from Taira. Royval managed to thwart Taira’s second and final grapple attempt of the match before turning the round around in his favor. Locking Taira into place with a hold around his neck Royval held Taira in a hold. For the final twenty seconds Taira attempted to break free but was not able to until the last few seconds of the round. Royval by a very close spilt decision won the match.
