Brandon Royval was forced out of his planned fight with Manel Kape due to a pair of concussions.

Royval was scheduled to face Kape in the main event of UFC Vegas 102 at the UFC APEX on March 1. However, Royval recently announced he was withdrawing from the contest and now we know why. In a video released to his YouTube channel, Royval revealed that a pair of concussions upended his training, leading him to pull out of the fight.

“First and foremost, I’ve fought so many times injured,” Royval said. “I’ve fought with broken hands, torn labrums, torn MCLs, all that, and for a lot less money and not as meaningful of events. Pulling out of a main event for the No. 1 spot was definitely a hard decision to make.

“Maybe a couple months back, I had a concussion. Nothing too crazy; I was just playing it safe, playing it smart. A couple weeks later, when I recovered, I accepted this fight, which was awesome. [I wanted to] fight Manel Kape. I respect his skills, I respect him as a striker and all that. I was training hard for this fight, and being a little reckless and being kind of in the zone for camp, I got another concussion. This one was severely worse. It’s been over a week at this point, and I’m still dealing with the repercussions of it and the symptoms of a bad concussion. And because of that reason and because of the reasoning of adding a weight cut, Manel Kape being a good striker, and this being a predominantly striking match that we felt this would be the safest move. Take some time, recover, recover the right way this time, and fight at a later date. Fight when I can fully train, fully take a punch, and give you guys the best of my ability.

“I’m sorry a million times over, but I do feel like this is the best thing for my all-around health. I’ve played with plenty of injuries in my life, but you really only get one brain, and the brain cells don’t heal. All this was playing into why I thought this was the better move.”

Royval is currently on a two-fight win streak since falling short in his flyweight title bid against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 296, winning split decisions over Brandon Moreno and Tatsuro Taira in 2024. Though nothing was official, the fight against Kape was expected to serve as a No. 1 contender bout, and Pantoja is not currently in a place to properly prepare for such a big fight, especially given how he fights.

“As of right now, the training has been really bare minimum — riding bikes and having onset concussion symptoms after that,” Pantoja revealed. “It’s still only been like a week, and it’s back-to-back concussions. It’s the first time in years that I’ve had a concussion, but having them back to back definitely has me questioning when I want to start taking punches again or drilling hard again or any of that because of the accidents that do happen. ...

“I really can’t wait to get back in there and prove my skills. I’m definitely not done fighting, but this is something that can definitely affect the long terms of my fighting if I don’t treat it properly, and I want more fights. I want to deliver the best fights. I’m an exciting fighter. That being said, being an exciting fighter, you put yourself into danger, so I have to be really cautious of how I enter some of these fights, especially when it comes to the brain. Hopefully, I’m back soon.”

In his place, surging flyweight prospect Asu Almabayev has stepped in to face Kape in the main event. Almabayev is currently the No. 8 flyweight contender in the UFC rankings and sports a 21-2 overall record, going a perfect 4-0 inside the UFC.