{"id":39532,"date":"2026-07-22T03:28:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Brandon-Royval-claims-social-media-followers-cost-him-UFC-main-event-202016"},"modified":"2026-07-22T03:28:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T03:28:39","slug":"brandon-royval-claims-social-media-followers-cost-him-ufc-main-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/brandon-royval-claims-social-media-followers-cost-him-ufc-main-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Royval claims social media followers cost him UFC main event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Brandon
\nRoyval<\/a> once missed out on a main event spot in the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> due to his social media
\nfollowing.<\/p>\n

Royval was scheduled to fight Askar
\nAskarov<\/a> in October 2022 in Las Vegas. Despite being a
\nhigh-ranked flyweight contender, he wasn\u2019t given the headliner spot
\non the card. Alexa
\nGrasso<\/a> headlined the card instead, with the Mexican taking on
\nViviane
\nAraujo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Brandon Royval explains UFC matchmaking decision involving
\nAlexa Grasso<\/h2>\n

Royval recently revealed that the UFC told him Grasso had jumped
\nahead of him to take the main event spot because she had
\nsubstantially more social media followers. He was livid at losing
\nout on a headlining role, although it eventually didn\u2019t matter as
\nAskarov pulled out due to weight cut issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving followers is such a big deal,\u201d Royval told Ariel Helwani.
\n\u201cI remember they didn’t book me as the main event, and their
\nreasoning was, I think it was Alexa Grasso, who they boosted in
\nfront of me. They were like, \u2018She has way more followers than you.\u2019
\nBut Askarov pulled out of that fight anyway, so it didn\u2019t matter. I
\nwas pissed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident made Royval (18-9) reconsider the importance of social
\nmedia in the modern era. \u201cRaw Dawg\u201d has since started engaging more
\nconsistently with fans online.<\/p>\n

Royval was recently in attendance at
\nUFC 328<\/a> this past May at Prudential Center in Newark, New
\nJersey. While Royval\u2019s name was displayed on the arena\u2019s screen,
\nthe camera focused on a woman sitting next to the former
\nLFA<\/a> champion. After the moment started gaining traction on
\nsocial media, Royval posted a video with the woman, which garnered
\nmassive engagement on his Instagram.<\/p>\n

Social media aside, Royval\u2019s performances inside the Octagon have
\nalso boosted his profile. He recently scored a submission win over
\nLone\u2019er
\nKavanagh<\/a> at
\nUFC 329<\/a> to rebound from a two-fight skid, earning a Fight of
\nthe Night bonus as well.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

“I remember they didn’t book me as a main
\nevent and the reasoning was like, ‘I think she has way more
\nfollowers than you.'” pic.twitter.com\/n1YveVeOU6<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Uncrowned (@uncrownedcombat)
\nJuly 21, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center>
\n

<\/p>\n
<\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandon Royval once missed out on a main event spot in the Ultimate Fighting Championship due to his social media following. Royval was scheduled to fight Askar Askarov in October 2022 in Las Vegas. Despite being a high-ranked flyweight contender, he wasn\u2019t given the headliner spot on the card. Alexa Grasso headlined the card instead, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}