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UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira (also known as UFC Fight Night 244, UFC on ESPN+ 102 and UFC Vegas 98) was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that took place on October 12, 2024, at the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada, part of the Las Vegas Valley, United States.[2]
| UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC Fight Night: Royval vs. Taira | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | October 12, 2024 | |||
| Venue | UFC Apex | |||
| City | Enterprise, Nevada, United States | |||
| Attendance | Not announced[1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
A flyweight bout between former UFC Flyweight Championship challenger (also former LFA Flyweight Champion) Brandon Royval and undefeated prospect Tatsuro Taira headlined the event.[3]
A middleweight bout between Brad Tavares and Park Jun-yong was expected to take place at UFC 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 former UFC Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt and former LFA Bantamweight Champion Miles Johns was scheduled for this event.[6] However, the bout was moved to UFC Fight Night 247 for unknown reasons.[7]
A women's strawweight bout between Polyana Viana and Cory 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 between Chris Barnett and former LFA Heavyweight Champion Waldo Cortes-Acosta was scheduled for this event.[10] However, Cortes-Acosta withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced by Junior Tafa.[11] Subsequently, Barnett withdrew after being unable to travel due to Hurricane 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]
- Jared Gooden weighed in at 172.5 pounds, one and a half pounds over the welterweight non-title fight limit.
- Dan Argueta weighed in at 138.5 pounds, two and a half pounds over the bantamweight non-title fight limit.
- Josh Fremd weighed in at 189 pounds, three pounds over the middleweight non-title fight limit.
Gooden and Argueta's bouts proceeded at catchweight and they were fined 20 percent of their individual purses which went to their opponents Chidi Njokuani and Cody Haddon respectively. Fremd’s bout with Abdul Razak Alhassan was canceled as a result.[15]
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| 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 | |
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The following fighters received $50,000 bonuses.[17]
- Fight of the Night: Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira
- Performance of the Night: Ramazan Temirov and Clayton Carpenter
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