UFC booking headliner between Brandon Royval and Manel Kape

The UFC‘s final scheduled event of 2025 goes down on December 13th and we now know the fight that’s scheduled to headline that card. Eurosport’s Marcel Dorff first reported yesterday that top flyweight contenders Brandon Royval (17-8) and Manel Kape (21-7) will headline the final card of the year.

It’s a pivotal matchup for the flyweight division and it’s a fight that was supposed to happen a couple of times this year. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm in 2025 when it comes to this flyweight showcase.

UFC Vegas 112

Originally, they were supposed to fight in March, but Royval pulled out of the fight due to an injury. Kape stayed on the card and he faced Asu Almabayev in a headliner where he scored a third round TKO. That win moved Kape to 6-1 in his last seven fights.

The second time Kape and Royval were booked to face each other was in June at UFC 317. The matchup was being looked at as a title eliminator. This time, Kape suffered an injury and Royval agreed to take a fight against Joshua Van.

Royval and Van put on one of the best fights you’ll see all year with Van winning a unanimous decision. The fight was razor close but Van put himself over the top by dropping and hurting Royval in the final seconds. That loss snapped a two-fight win streak for Royval where he had wins over Tatsuro Taira and former champ Brandon Moreno.