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History · 2023 · UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington · Alexandre Pantoja vs Brandon Royval
From the tape · 16 Dec 2023

Alexandre Pantoja vs Brandon Royval

UFC 296: Edwards vs. Covington · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Result

Alexandre Pantoja beat Brandon Royval

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
Flyweight TitleTitle fightCo-MainReferee · Marc Goddard

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner AlexandrePantoja“The Cannibal”American Top Team · Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro
VSOn the tape
Blue corner BrandonRoyval“Raw Dawg”Factory X · Englewood, Colorado
Flyweight Title5 rounds16 Dec 2023
The story going in
  • Comes in on a 4-fight win streak.
  • Comes in on a 3-fight win streak.
  • Has finished 6 of 10 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 4 of 5 UFC wins.
30-6
Record
18-9
33
Age
−2 yr31
5' 5"
Height
+4″5' 9"
67″
Reach
+1″68″
Orthodox
Stance
Southpaw
+613
UFC bouts
7
6/1060% of wins
Finishes
+20%4/580% of wins
American Top Team
Gym
Factory X
Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro
From
Englewood, Colorado
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Alexandre Pantoja27 sig landed
HEAD33%9 of 19BODY37%10 of 13LEGS30%8 of 8
Brandon Royval13 sig landed
HEAD85%11 of 28BODY8%1 of 1LEGS8%1 of 1
27 of 40
Sig.
strikes
13 of 30
1 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
2:50
Control
0:01
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 19Clinch 2Ground 6
Where it
happened
Distance 9Clinch 0Ground 4
Judges · this round · Pantoja firstEric Colón10–9Junichiro Kamijo10–9Ron McCarthy10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Alexandre Pantoja10 sig landed
HEAD50%5 of 8BODY40%4 of 6LEGS10%1 of 1
Brandon Royval12 sig landed
HEAD75%9 of 13BODY25%3 of 3LEGS0%0 landed
10 of 15
Sig.
strikes
12 of 16
2 of 3
Take-
downs
0 of 0
3:44
Control
0:00
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 6Clinch 1Ground 3
Where it
happened
Distance 8Clinch 1Ground 3
Judges · this round · Pantoja firstEric Colón10–9Junichiro Kamijo10–9Ron McCarthy10–9
Round 35:00 of action
Alexandre Pantoja17 sig landed
HEAD29%5 of 14BODY35%6 of 6LEGS35%6 of 6
Brandon Royval24 sig landed
HEAD88%21 of 43BODY8%2 of 2LEGS4%1 of 1
17 of 26
Sig.
strikes
24 of 46
2 of 5
Take-
downs
0 of 1
2:13
Control
0:06
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 15Clinch 2Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 20Clinch 2Ground 2
Judges · this round · Pantoja firstEric Colón10–9Junichiro Kamijo10–9Ron McCarthy10–9
Round 45:00 of action1 sub attempt
Alexandre Pantoja0 sig landed
HEAD0%0 of 1BODY0%0 landedLEGS0%0 landed

No significant strikes landed — 1 thrown

Brandon Royval7 sig landed
HEAD100%7 of 14BODY0%0 landedLEGS0%0 landed
0 of 1
Sig.
strikes
7 of 14
1 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
4:21
Control
0:31
1
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 0Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 1Clinch 0Ground 6
Judges · this round · Pantoja firstEric Colón10–9Junichiro Kamijo10–9Ron McCarthy10–9
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Alexandre Pantoja41 sig landed
HEAD73%30 of 59BODY5%2 of 5LEGS22%9 of 10
Brandon Royval55 sig landed
HEAD98%54 of 95BODY2%1 of 3LEGS0%0 landed
41 of 74
Sig.
strikes
55 of 98
2 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 0
2:43
Control
0:09
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 34Clinch 0Ground 7
Where it
happened
Distance 53Clinch 2Ground 0
Judges · this round · Pantoja firstEric Colón9–10Junichiro Kamijo10–9Ron McCarthy10–9

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Marc Goddard
Alexandre PantojaBrandon Royval
Official totals — Alexandre Pantoja first
JudgeTotal
Eric Colón2.0 avg spread · 43% wide49–46
Junichiro Kamijo2.0 avg spread · 43% wide50–45
Ron McCarthy2.0 avg spread · 41% wide50–45

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 23 scored, Alexandre Pantoja first · unofficial

Jay Pettry Sherdog.com50–45
Scottie Smith Sherdog.com50–45
Michael DeSantis MMASucka.com50–45
Steve Duncan mma.uno50–45
Shakiel Mahjouri CBS Sports50–45
Daniel Yanofsky The Sporting News50–45
Ben Duffy Sherdog.com49–46
John Pollock POST Wrestling49–46
Bloody Elbow.com49–46
Michael DeSantis MMASucka.com49–46
Danny Segura MMAJunkie.com49–46
Jake Noecker Cageside Press49–46
Ryan Frederick WrestlingObserver.com49–46
Patrick McCorry Cageside Press49–46
Keith Shillan Sherdog.com49–46
Dayne Fox BloodyElbow.com49–46
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com49–46
MM AMania.com49–46
MM AJunkie.com49–46
Jed Meshew MMAFighting.com48–46
Dan Urban Couchside Judges48–47
Drake Riggs MMAMania.com48–47
Scott Fontana New York Post48–47

Fan vote · unofficial

49-46 Pantoja · 41%50-45 Pantoja · 26%48-47 Pantoja · 20%48-47 Royval · 5%50-44 Pantoja · 3%

207 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Alexandre Pantoja

2.79takedowns / 15 min
2.79 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
0.65 / 15m
5.94 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
0.87 / 15m
47%
ACCURACY
75%
1.00 / 15m
SUB ATT
1.10 / 15m

Brandon Royval

0.65takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.00 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Flyweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Alexandre Pantoja↓ −3.8pp
open 68.5%close 64.7%
Brandon Royval↑ +3.8pp
open 31.5%close 35.3%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Alexandre Pantoja opened at 68.5% and closed at 64.7% (−3.8pp), with Brandon Royval moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Alexandre Pantoja-250-20968.5%64.7%−3.8pp
Brandon Royval20517131.5%35.3%+3.8pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · dated 2023-12-17 on the odds record (1d from the card date; the nearest day inside a two-day window is used, never a guess) · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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