| UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | October 12, 2024 (2024-10-12) | |||
| Venue | UFC Apex | |||
| City | Enterprise, Nevada, United States | |||
| Attendance | Not announced[1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira (also known asUFC Fight Night 244,UFC on ESPN+ 102 andUFC Vegas 98) was a mixed martial arts event produced by theUltimate Fighting Championship that took place on October 12, 2024, at theUFC Apex inEnterprise, Nevada, part of theLas Vegas Valley, United States.[2]
A flyweight bout between formerUFC Flyweight Championship challenger (also formerLFA Flyweight Champion)Brandon Royval and undefeated prospectTatsuro Taira headlined the event.[3]
A middleweight bout betweenBrad Tavares andPark Jun-yong was expected to take place atUFC on ESPN: Lemos vs. Jandiroba in July 2024, but it was scrapped when Park was not medically cleared after the weigh-ins.[4] They were then rescheduled for this event.[5]
A bantamweight bout between formerUFC Bantamweight ChampionCody Garbrandt and formerLFA Bantamweight ChampionMiles Johns was scheduled for this event.[6] However, the bout was moved toUFC Fight Night 247 for unknown reasons.[7]
A women's strawweight bout betweenPolyana Viana andCory McKenna was scheduled for this event.[8] However, Viana withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced by Julia Polastri.[9]
A heavyweight bout betweenChris Barnett and formerLFA Heavyweight ChampionWaldo Cortes-Acosta was scheduled for this event.[10] However, Cortes-Acosta withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced byJunior Tafa.[11] Subsequently, Barnett withdrew after being unable to travel due toHurricane Milton and was replaced by promotional newcomer Sean Sharaf.[12]
Terrance McKinney was briefly announced to compete on the card in a lightweight bout against a to-be-named opponent.[13] However, he was removed from the card for unknown reasons.[14]
At the weigh-ins, three fighters missed weight:[15]
Gooden and Argueta's bouts proceeded at catchweight and they were fined 20 percent of their individual purses which went to their opponentsChidi Njokuani and Cody Haddon respectively. Fremd’s bout withAbdul Razak Alhassan was canceled as a result.[15]
| Main card (ESPN+) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Flyweight | Brandon Royval | def. | Tatsuro Taira | Decision (split) (47–48, 48–47, 48–47) | 5 | 5:00 | |
| Middleweight | Park Jun-yong | def. | Brad Tavares | Decision (split) (28–29, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Catchweight (172.5 lb) | Chidi Njokuani | def. | Jared Gooden | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Lightweight | Grant Dawson | def. | Rafa García | TKO (elbows and punches) | 2 | 1:42 | |
| Welterweight | Daniel Rodriguez | def. | Alex Morono | Decision (split) (28–29, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Preliminary card (ESPN+) | |||||||
| Flyweight | Ramazan Temirov | def. | C.J. Vergara | TKO (punches) | 1 | 2:50 | |
| Featherweight | Pat Sabatini | def. | Jonathan Pearce | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 1 | 4:06 | |
| Welterweight | Themba Gorimbo | def. | Niko Price | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Heavyweight | Junior Tafa | def. | Sean Sharaf | TKO (punches) | 2 | 2:15 | |
| Women's Strawweight | Julia Polastri | def. | Cory McKenna | Decision (split) (29–28, 28–29, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Catchweight (138.5 lb) | Cody Haddon | def. | Daniel Argueta | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Flyweight | Clayton Carpenter | def. | Lucas Rocha | Technical Submission (rear-naked choke) | 2 | 2:12 | |
The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses.[17]
