While Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno prepare to clash for a record fourth time, with Figueiredo’s Ultimate Fighting Championship belt at stake, a growing queue of 125-pound contenders including Askar Askarov and Brandon Royval are elbowing each other—not to mention punching, kicking and choking—to get to the front of the line to meet whomever emerges as champ.
Askarov and Royval, who meet on the main card of UFC Fight Night 212 on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, find themselves in a similar place—the flyweight Top 10—but on different trajectories.