UFC Fight Night Predictions: Brandon Royval – Manel Kape (13-12-2025)

UFC on ESPN: Royval – Kape (also known as UFC on ESPN 73 and UFC Vegas 112) is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on December 13, 2025, at the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada, part of the Las Vegas Valley, United States.

This event is expected to be the final UFC broadcast under the U.S. media rights agreement with ESPN as beginning in 2026, UFC live event coverage will transition to Paramount Skydance.

A flyweight bout between former UFC Flyweight Championship challenger (also former LFA Flyweight Champion) Brandon Royval and former RIZIN Bantamweight Champion Manel Kape is scheduled to headline the event.

A highly anticipated debut awaits for Polish MMA fan base as Cezary Oleksiejczuk steps into the octagon to face Cesar Almeida this Saturday, December 13th. Cezary Oleksiejczuk is also #3 ranked MMA fighter in the Europe region and is ranked in 2 Europe sub-regions (Europe Eastern, Poland), since he fought there already.

The Polish star was instantly signed by the organisation after his masterclass in fight against Theo Haig in the DWCS (Dana White’s Contender Series). C.Oleksejczuk clipped his opponent very early and finished him with hammerfists on the ground in only 36 seconds.

Overall, the Polish fighter is on a tear since winning the FEN organisation belt in 2024 as he finished all 4 of his last opponents in the 1st round. Now it is a great time to show what he is really worth, since he has not fought any notable names known in the US.

Cesar Almeida’s road to the UFC was similar, since he has won a UFC contract through DWCS too, but it was back in 2023. Now Almeida has 4 UFC fights under his name with a record of 3W-1L.

He impressively finished Dylan Budka on his debut with a 2nd round finish due to the elbow strikes on the ground and only 2 months later lost to Roman Kapylov via split decision.

The Brazilian fought once this year back in January after taking on Abdul Razak Alhassan. Both fighters worked on their feet, but C.Almeida got the best out of it and landed a perfect left hook, finishing the opponent before the 1st round bell.

This fight should be very entertaining for both – casual UFC viewer and a die hard MMA betting fan. C.Oleksiejsciuz kept things really busy this year with 3 fights already in 2025 all of them ending with a 1st round KO’s. Now 56% of his career wins are by KO with 7 out of 9 being in the first round.

C.Almeida transitioned to MMA from kickboxing and back in kickboxing days fought in the biggest organisations, including Glory. The Brazilian is a natural striker and 70% of his career fights ended with KO victories.

With both fighters having an elite striker base which is a main one for the two, we can expect this fight ending earlier.

Giga Chikadze returns to the cage for the second time this year and would like to end his unwanted skid. The Georgian has now lost 2 fights in a row, but did not absorb any significant damage.

Giga lost to Brandon Allen in a close fight, which lacked action, especially from the Georgian in the 3rd round, which eventually cost him the fight. In his last bout, Giga faced David Onama, but was not able to defend the opponents takedowns and suffered another 29-28 defeat.

Kevin Vallejos is a newcomer who debuted with the UFC this year, but this will be his 3rd fight already. The Argentinian got signed by the organisation through DWCS, where he TKO’d Cam Teague in the 1st round.

K.Vallejos was able to repeat his luck in the first official UFC fight too, with another 1st round finish over Seung Woo Choi. In his last bout, K.Vallejos outstruck Danny Silva and won a unanimous decision.

With both men being calculated strikers, we would be surprised to see an early finish in this one. Giga did not lose a single MMA fight due to KO and was finished only once via submission. The Georgian went to a decision in his 8 out of 11 UFC fights and we are not expecting anything else in this fight too, as K.Vallejos is not a grade A grappler and is not super aggressive on the feat.

Brandon Royval has already faced the best of the best in this division and now is looking to climb back the ladders for a chance to fight for the UFC flyweight championship again.

This June the American faced Joshua Van, who surprisingly became division champion last weekend.

Both men were beating each other faces in and were awarded a fight of the night bonus with Joshua Van edging a close victory. Previously, B.Royval racked victories over Brandon Moreno and Tatsuro Taira therefore this past loss kept him in the top 5 as he is now ranked #3.

Controversially ranked Manel Kape is now on a two fights winning streak and recently defeated a new hot UFC prospect Asu Almabayev with the 3rd round knee strikes.

The Portuguese star suffered only one defeat in 4 years in one of the worst fights in MMA history ever versus Muhammed Mokaev.

Both men hyped up the fight with trashtalking, but were not able to back it up showing bare minimum of action and no intentions to finish the fight.

Interestingly enough this fight was scheduled already 2 times in the past, but were cancelled due to M.Kape’s problems with weight class and injuries.

This fight is scheduled for 5 rounds due to it being a main event. Both men will need to evaluate it wisely and use their gas tanks safely. Although M.Kape has one of the best finishing rates for the division, it is hard to see this fight ending early.

B.Royval fought every single fighter in the current top 5 and was not finished in the rematches, his last finish loss being 2021.

It might be worth putting money on B.Royval, since the reliable bookies are undervaluating and disrespecting him greatly, but as usual we are going with a safer option – total rounds 2.5 under as either man are just too good being finished early and this being a 5 rounder.