Brandon Royval knows what it’s like to be a hungry challenger.

The flyweight veteran scraped and clawed his way to a UFC title shot, falling just short of the gold with a decision loss to Alexandre Pantoja this past December. A razor-thin win over two-time champion Brandon Moreno nudged Royval closer to a rematch, but there’s still work to be done if he wants another crack at it and that means beating the undefeated Tatsuro Taira this Saturday in the main event of UFC Vegas 98.

In this “what have you done for me lately?” business, Taira has the opportunity to steal Royval’s spot—currently tied for No. 2 in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, well ahead of Taira at No. 8—and leap right into the title picture. Which is not to say Taira won’t have earned it as he’s currently 16-0 with six wins in the UFC. Oh, and he doesn’t turn 25 until January.

Pantoja should watch this headliner closely because he could be scouting his next challenger.

In other main card action, Brad Tavares makes his 25th UFC appearance, a record in the middleweight division, Chidi Njokuani continues to test the welterweight waters, Grant Dawson looks to move closer to the lightweight top 15, welterweight veterans Daniel Rodriguez and Alex Morono square off, and Abdul Razak Alhassan targets a fast finish against Josh Fremd.

What: UFC Vegas 98

Where: UFC APEX in Las Vegas

When: Saturday, Oct. 12. The seven-fight preliminary card begins at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN+, followed by a five-fight main card at 7 p.m. ET also on ESPN+.

Brandon Royval vs. Tatsuro Taira

It’s scary the rate at which Tatsuro Taira is evolving and that’s why I like his chances against Brandon Royval.

Make no mistake, this is the biggest test for Taira yet. The Japanese wunderkind looked good against Alex Perez before a grappling exchange that Taira controlled resulted in Perez blowing out his knee, but outside of that he’s yet to perform against the best that flyweight has to offer. He’s clearly the class of his tier, but how will that translate against an opponent that just went 25 minutes in a title fight eight months ago?

When Royval fights to his potential, he’s as good as anyone at 125 pounds. What he struggles with is finding the right balance between his natural aggression and employing a more technical gameplan, which can lead to mixed results. He’s far more battle-tested than Taira though, an important factor to consider when a young fighter is being asked to take a step up in competition.

The name of the game for Taira should be working for takedowns, and rinsing and repeating that strategy until he’s frustrated Royval into submission. Taira has shown he can strike, but he won’t want to mess with Royval’s unpredictable power if he can help it. It’s time for Taira to show his all-around skills are worthy of a title opportunity.

We’re swinging big here and picking Taira to beat Royval via submission in Round 2.

Pick: Taira

Brad Tavares vs. Jun Yong Park

It’s the middleweight division’s Iron Man vs. “The Iron Turtle.”

No middleweight has made more UFC appearances than Brad Tavares, who has been with the organization since 2010. He’s the ultimate gamer, having lost to several elite names while still stringing together enough wins to keep himself employed. He won’t be intimidated in the slightest by Jun Yong Park.

This will be a back-and-forth battle for three rounds, neither fighter likely to connect with a telling blow that lets the judges toss their scorecards. Park has shown flashes of a spot in the rankings, but hasn’t done enough to cross that threshold just yet. To beat Tavares, he has to top the output of a veteran known for his non-stop activity.

When it comes to battles of attrition, Tavares often finds a way to do just enough to sway the scoring in his favor and I expect that to be the case Saturday as well. He times his entries to counter Park’s effective jab game, stuffs any takedown attempts, and outpoints Park to take a unanimous decision.

Pick: Tavares

Chidi Njokuani vs. Jared Gooden

Jared Gooden couldn’t have picked a worse time to miss weight.

In case you haven’t noticed, the latest season of Dana White’s Contender Series is wrapping soon and that means a little fall house-cleaning, as it were. So the last thing you want to be doing is messing around on the scale, especially when you don’t have the most spotless record.

Gooden is 1-1 in his second UFC stint (2-4 overall) and given this is the third time he’s missed weight in the promotion, there’s no nice way to put it: he’s fighting to stay on the roster here. That worst-case scenario could motivate him to a career-best performance when the bell rings, but the fact he missed weight in the first place should raise concerns as to his level of preparation.

His opponent Chidi Njokuani was once known for his inability to cut down to 170 pounds, but he made that weight for his most recent fight with Rhys McKee and following that split decision win he’s looking to prove he deserves bigger fights. His speed and striking have always made him an intriguing talent and as he approaches his 36th birthday, it’s now or never for him.

For now, he should handily out-strike Gooden and foil his attempts to take the fight to the ground. A focused Njokuani should end this via knockout in the first or second round.

Pick: Njokuani

Grant Dawson vs. Rafa Garcia

Listed generously at 5-foot-7, Rafa Garcia is used to being the low man whenever he enters the octagon, so I’m curious to see how he deals with the brawny Grant Dawson.

Garcia is strong as an ox and loves to throw looping hooks en route takedown attempts. He’s in tough against Dawson, a fellow grappler that will be tough to outwrestle. It’s entirely possible they neutralize each other’s wrestling, resulting in a standup battle I think Dawson wins.

True, we haven’t seen much of Dawson on the feet and what he have seen has been a work in progress, but he strikes me as someone who is still developing his striking, not someone who is incapable of it. His size and strength—and the harsh lessons learned in his loss to Bobby Green—should give him the advantage here. If Dawson can sprinkle in a few takedowns, all the better.

Garcia will make him work for it, but Dawson by decision.

Pick: Dawson

Daniel Rodriguez vs. Alex Morono

As mentioned above, the UFC is in a cutting mood, so let’s hope that doesn’t spell doom for the loser of Daniel Rodriguez vs. Alex Morono. Even though neither fighter is ever likely to compete for a world title, they still have a lot to offer.

They’ll get to show it in this matchup of two strikers, Rodriguez better known for his crafty and technical style, and Morono more prone to timely bursts of action. Neither man is likely to come out guns blazing, so expect this to come off as a high-level sparring match with a little blood sprinkled in. That’s the best you can ask for with these APEX cards, sometimes.

When he’s on, Rodriguez looks like a top-15 welterweight. I like his chances of channeling some of his prime form against Morono. It’s Rodriguez’s fight to lose and I see him winning the majority of exchanges over the course of three rounds to take a comfortable, if uneventful decision.

Pick: Rodriguez

Preliminaries

Ramazan Temirov def. CJ Vergara

Pat Sabatini def. Jonathan Pearce

Themba Gorimbo def. Niko Price

Cory McKenna def. Julia Polastri

Sean Sharaf def. Junior Tafa

Cody Haddon def. Dan Argueta

Lucas Rocha def. Clayton Carpenter

Rank	Driver	Team	Wins	Points
11	Max VerstappenVER	Red Bull	77	331331 Advertisement
22	Lando NorrisNOR	McLaren	33	279279 Advertisement
33	Charles LeclercLEC	Ferrari	22	245245 Advertisement
44	Oscar PiastriPIA	McLaren	22	237237 Advertisement
55	Carlos Sainz JnrSAI	Ferrari	11	190190 Advertisement
66	Lewis HamiltonHAM	Mercedes	22	174174 Advertisement
77	George RussellRUS	Mercedes	11	155155 Advertisement
88	Sergio PerezPER	Red Bull	00	144144 Advertisement
99	Fernando AlonsoALO	Aston Martin	00	6262 Advertisement
1010	Nico HulkenbergHUL	Haas	00	2424 Advertisement
1111	Lance StrollSTR	Aston Martin	00	2424 Advertisement
1212	Yuki TsunodaTSU	RB	00	2222 Advertisement
1313	Alexander AlbonALB	Williams	00	1212 Advertisement
1414	Daniel RicciardoRIC	RB	00	1212 Advertisement
1515	Pierre GaslyGAS	Alpine	00	88 Advertisement
1616	Oliver BearmanBEA	Haas	00	77 Advertisement
1717	Kevin MagnussenMAG	Haas	00	66 Advertisement
1818	Esteban OconOCO	Alpine	00	55 Advertisement
1919	Franco ColapintoCOL	Williams	00	44 Advertisement
2020	Zhou GuanyuZHO	Sauber	00	00 Advertisement
2121	Logan SargeantSAR	Williams	00	00 Advertisement
2222	Valtteri BottasBOT	Sauber	00	00 Advertisement

Last updated 23rd September 2024 at 06:16

Back in 1974, McLaren performed a feat that very few teams have achieved in motorsport – winning both the Indy500 AND the F1 Championship in the same year, with the McLaren M16 and M23 cars respectively. But what made these cars so spectacular? What makes them so similar, yet so fundamentally different?

Kevin Turner spent the day with McLaren at Pembrey Circuit to view these cars in action on track and find out everything to do with these title-winning machines. Many thanks to @McLaren for inviting us out for the day! If you want to read more about the cars, head over to the link below: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/when-mclaren-conquered-f1-and-the-indy-500/10660460/

0:00 Winning the Indy 500 & F1 Title

1:02 The McLaren M16

3:17 The M16’s Importance for McLaren

4:32 McLaren’s M23 F1 Car

6:05 The Differences between the M16 and M23

7:12 Engineers Working on Both Cars

8:04 Ranking the M16 & M23 in McLaren’s History

9:02 McLaren’s Historic Legacy

9:42 Can Anyone Else Win Both Titles in One Year?

#f1 #indycar #mclaren

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The debate about to what extent the MotoGP riders who started the 2024 season with the latest Ducati specification had an advantage is still alive, although somewhat less than a few months ago when the Borgo Panigale brand had to decide who would partner Francesco Bagnaia in 2025 as second factory rider.

Enea Bastianini’s poor start to the year left Jorge Martin and Marquez as the main candidates to take his place, and in the end, it was the latter who won the battle. According to Ducati, one of the most important reasons for choosing the Catalan, who at that time in Mugello had not yet won a race, was the performance he was able to demonstrate with a 2023 bike which, on paper, is inferior in performance to this year’s prototype.

“The Ducati engineers saw my progression with the 2023 bike; that outweighed the rest,” said Marquez, just after being confirmed as a factory rider for next year. “According to Gigi [Dall’Igna, Ducati’s general manager], the element that tipped the balance was what I saw on the track; my progression and ability to improve.”

Although Dall’Igna himself has acknowledged that the GP24 can indeed be considered a better bike than its predecessor, there are still those who dare to question or relativise it.

“We have definitely improved the GP24 in those aspects where the GP23 was a bit weaker,” agreed Dall’Igna in August during the British Grand Prix, where Ducati introduced the last package of updates before stopping its development to let Bagnaia and Martin play for the title with the bikes they already know. “I have to say that the factory guys have done a really good job,” added Dall’Igna.

A detailed look at the trace left so far by the two models, and a comparison with what happened in last year’s championship, not only supports Dall’Igna’s comments, but practically settles the debate. Especially because of the four riders competing on a GP23, only Marquez has been able to withstand the push from those on the GP24, especially in the second half of the season.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The comparison between the statistics produced by the GP22 in 2023, and those left by the GP23 in 2024, confirms that the leap in quality of the 2024 bike over the 2023 is much greater than the one between the 2022 prototype and the 2023 one.

Last year, among the four riders who competed in the championship with the ‘old’ Ducati (GP22), they scored a total of four wins (three Bezzecchi and one Di Giannantonio), 13 podiums, three pole positions (two Marini and one Alex Marquez) and 15 front row starts.

These four victories account for 23.6% of the total of 17 wins for the Bolognese manufacturer. That proportion rises to 30.2% in podiums (13 of Ducati’s 43 total podiums). It is also worth noting that, in addition, all four riders were able to climb onto the podium on a Sunday, and all of them started at least once from the front row.

On the other hand, those percentages drop in 2024 with those who are currently riding the old version (GP23). And of those, only Marquez keeps that Desmosedici close. Last year’s specification has only won twice (Aragon and Misano) – always in the hands of the #93 rider – and that results in 13.3% of Ducati’s total number of victories (15).

As for the number of podiums, of the Italian manufacturer’s 48 total so far, only 10 (20.8%) belong to GP23s, eight of them by Marquez.