UFC Apex: Royval vs Kape - Dec 13 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Last UFC card for six weeks. 

[Kfogg1991]

It wouldn't be a UFC card without a fight falling apart.

Lemos Vs Robertson is off as reported a couple hours ago because of sickness on lemos end apparently 

[Dai]

Was a pretty good show, this. King Green did what Greene does. Buchecha looks like a tank, but then maybe thats why he gassed after a round. Costa had a nice little Cro Cop tribute with the headkick. Not as great as old Mirko, but not a bad effort. Cezary's performance was probably worse than an exciting loss in terms of what UFC management would have made of his win and potential next fight.

 

Couple of nice finishes at the top end of the card too; Vallejos' backfist was very nice. Was a fairly equal fight up until that. No issues with the Royval stoppage. Looked like one of those where he was clearly out and then another punch woke him up. So even though he was defending when it got stopped, it was still the right call.

Perfect debut from Amasov, exactly what was expected. There was also a belting heavyweight scrap on the prelims too, between Asplund and Sharaf. Asplund looked class, and was doing a tribute to a Diaz brother with the volume of strikes he was throwing. One to keep an eye on for myself, for sure.  

[Bruce85]

Also thought this was a decent little card! 
 

Has Kape done enough to jump to the front of the line for a title shot? I’d say so unless they bring back Mokaev for a rematch I don’t see who else he could fight next?

 

Asplund on the prelims stole the show for me, not saying he’s a world beater or future champion but he looked good. He set the record for most significant strikes in a 3 round heavyweight fight even though it didn’t get out the second round. I liked his post fight interview, I’m routing for him going forward. 
 

I didn’t realise there was no UFC for 6 weeks now, is the break normally that long? 

[Dai]

Just checked and it was a month last year. Six weeks does seem a long time. A win like that will always make it more likely that Kape will be put to the front of the queue.

[Kfogg1991]

I've still not watched this yet knew I wouldn't if I didn't watch live seems there's a few bits to check out.

Agreed six weeks definitely seems like the longest break till return in January but it could be because difficulties getting a venue till the first one end of January Dana has mentioned it being a issue and reason they've not ran certain countries still while vocally wanting to which hopefully eases next year.

Getting back to back ppv cards is unbelievable is it the first aswell.

After this weekend the break from ppvs begins bring on January 

[wandshogun09]

“I’m gonna take your diapers…alive.” - Manel Kape

OK then. What the fuck was that about? 🤣

On 12/18/2025 at 9:30 AM, Bruce85 said:

Has Kape done enough to jump to the front of the line for a title shot?

I can see it happening. Depending on how long Pantoja is gonna be out. If Pantoja’s good to go soon I think they do Van vs Pantoja 2 straight away given the unsatisfactory ending the first time. But just looking at the injury though, I’d be surprised if he’s back anytime soon. And Van likes to stay active so I think we’ll be seeing a title defence from him in the meantime. I thought it’d be Van vs Taira but Kape’s probably leapfrogged Taira now with this win, just because of the finish. He’s ranked #2 now, with the only name above him being Pantoja. So I’d assume he’s next and then Pantoja will fight the winner when he’s ready to come back. The only problem with Kape is he’s got a reputation for being unreliable with his history of pulling out of fights and missing weight. I think they’ll book Van vs Kape anyway. Whether it actually happens or not we’ll see but I reckon they’ll book it and probably sooner than people think. Wouldn’t be surprised if we see it thrown on a card between now and March.

As for the fight itself…

Yeah I was fine with the stoppage. You can see from that angle there that there’s a moment when Royval clearly goes out, his body goes limp and he’s in no position to ‘intelligently defend himself’. At that point it’s over. He came back around quickly and he probably didn’t even know he went out in that moment, but it was a good stoppage.

I really enjoy watching Royval but I’m actually quite happy with the recent results in the Flyweight division. I like Moreno too but I’m kind of glad him and Royval both lost their last fights. Just because it feels like they’ve been hogging the top spots in the title picture for a lifetime now and them losing freshens things up. Going into 2026 with Van as the new champ, Pantoja now having to become the hunter again at 125lbs and a bunch of new contenders like Kape, Taira and Horiguchi, the division feels fresher than it has in years.

Kevin Vallejos got the job done in style in the co-main. Fuck me. Nasty finish.

Vallejos is a guy that’s had a bit of hype around him and he looked good in his first couple of UFC fights but the jury was still kind of out for me. This win didn’t answer all the questions but putting Giga Chikadze out like that is the kind of win that’s gonna move him up the ladder. He’s entered the rankings now at #13. Looking at the names around that number, I think a fight with Pitbull would make sense for him. Not sure how far he can go. It wasn’t like he was dominating Chikadze here before the knockout or anything. But he’s 17-1 now, on a six fight streak, only loss was to Jean Silva on points on DWCS etc. He’s got something and he’s exciting to watch. I think giving him a veteran like Pitbull next is the move. The Cub Swanson callout felt a bit weak to me. I thought Swanson was retired but maybe not. 

I might be being harsh with it being his UFC debut, but based on this one fight it appears Cezary Oleksiejczuk is nowhere near as entertaining to watch as his brother Michal. We’ll see how he looks next time and he got the win here so job done. But I wasn’t a fan of this fight at all. Not the kind of fight I expected given his brother’s willingness to trade and Almeida being a Kickboxer.

Melquizael Costa KOing Morgan Charriere with the big headkick wasn’t really how I expected that fight to go. I wasn’t shocked so much that Costa won, I just didn’t think it would be that early, that decisive and that vicious.

Hell of a finish. Costa’s been on quite a run over the last 18 months or so. This was his fifth win in a row and his fourth win this year. I was kind of disappointed in one way because I really thought we were in for a cracking fight here but Costa just came out and flattened him. Impressive. I’d actually like to see him get a ranked opponent next. Looking at the Featherweight rankings, maybe David Onama who’s currently at #15? Maybe Dan Ige who’s at #14? Those would be fun. Failing that, I wouldn’t be against seeing Costa vs Nathaniel Wood on the next London card in March. Can’t go wrong with any of them.

Nzechukwu vs Buchecha was arse. I’ve seen enough of Buchecha at this point. He’s only two fights in and already I’ve got no interest in seeing him fight again. Awful to watch. Like a Heavyweight Kron Gracie. Don’t even know if the draw was the right call or not. Don’t care. I stopped paying attention about halfway through the second round.

Really didn’t enjoy the King Green vs Lance Gibson Jr fight either. Don’t know if it was just a styles clash or maybe because the fight was thrown together so late or what. But it wasn’t good. Green’s showboating shit doesn’t quite hit the same when the fight is as dull as this. Shite debut for Gibson. Don’t know if this is typical of his style but for someone nicknamed ‘Fearless’ to fight in such a timid way like this was some bullshit. As Nick Diaz would say, “wolf tickets”. His performance did nothing to make me wanna watch him fight again.

Yaroslav Amosov made short work of Neil Magny. Really strong debut against the guy who’s been the go-to litmus test in the Welterweight division for years now. Sure Magny’s pushing 40 and has a bunch of losses but he was coming off a couple of wins here and it still takes a certain level of fighter to beat him and an even higher level of fighter to just breeze through him like Amosov did here.

Fair play. Very interesting addition to 170. Now 29-1, still only 32 years old and has a style that could be a problem for a lot of guys. I don’t see him becoming champ or anything, the division is strong at the moment and I just get the feeling he’s gonna come unstuck as he gets higher up the rankings. But who knows? It’s gonna be interesting to see how he does.

Agree with the above comments that Steven Asplund was definitely the highlight of the prelims, and maybe the whole card. The name and face kind of rang a bell when I knocked together the opening post but it wasn’t until I saw him walk out that I remembered. I never saw his fight on DWCS but I did recall seeing his post-fight promo all over the timeline back then because he said something like “Hey Dana, I’ll suck your toes”. Which was obviously all kinds of fucking gross. This visual wasn’t much better…

But I must admit, I liked him here. I know it’s asking too much in 2025 MMA but hopefully he doesn’t turn out to be an arsehole or racist or something. He came across really likeable in his little victory speech here. His story of being 500lbs plus and losing the weight is inspirational and the fight itself was way more entertaining than I ever expect out of low level Heavyweights. Whoever said it was a bit Diaz-like, I agree. That’s exactly the vibe I got watching it. My hopes aren’t high because he wades in with his chin up in the air and that’s just asking for trouble but he was clearly better than Sharaf here and it was a fun scrap to watch, which we rarely ever say about the Heavies anymore. 

That’s 2025 done and dusted then. Hopefully the Paramount move freshens things up in 2026. I actually don’t even mind the big six week break now. There are other things to do on Saturday nights, especially over Christmas and New Year’s. The next show 324 in late January looks really good so I’m sure by the time we’ve had the break between shows, there’s gonna be some buzz for that one.