‘Pissed off’ Rogerio Bontorin denies tapping in UFC loss to Brandon Royval, blames ‘fishy’ judges for decision

Rogerio Bontorin is unhappy with the way things went during his UFC Vegas 46 bout with Brandon Royval.

The Brazilian flyweight lost a split decision to Royval at the January 15 event, but is adamant that he won the first two rounds. Judge Douglas Crosby was the only to score it that way, with Eric Colon and Chris Lee giving Royval the nod in rounds one and three.

Upset with the result, Bontorin also refuted the claim he allegedly tapped to an armbar in the final round. Royval told BJPenn.com the Brazilian tapped and “immediately looked at the ref to make sure the ref didn’t see it.” Royval added that the alleged missed tap never stopped him from cranking on Bontorin’s arm.

“He’s trying to find a reason to explain [the result] because he knows he lost. And I didn’t tap,” Bontorin responded in an interview with MMA Fighting. “If I had tapped, I would have tapped many times or said stop.

“I tried to hold my arm, but he had already stretched it, so my hand went the other way and touched his leg, but I brought it right back. That’s what happened. He said he [cranked] it and popped my arm, but he didn’t do sh*t. My arm is fine.”

Bontorin said it was a “weird feeling” to return to Brazil with a loss when he felt he should have won a decision, but he is happy with his performance overall.

“I don’t feel like I lost, but I’m really pissed off,” he said. “The whole world watched that fight and knows I didn’t lose. It feels like something was taken from me.”

The 29-year-old flyweight is now 3-3 under the UFC banner since joining the company via Dana White’s Contender Series, a run that includes wins over the likes of Raulian Paiva and Magomed Bibulatov.

With only one bout left on his UFC contract, Bontorin wants it to be a rematch with Royval.

”I’ll fight him at any time, but not in Las Vegas,” Bontorin said. “The commission is kind of fishy. When the bus arrived at the APEX, I saw he knew the entire commission staff, hugging everybody, but I never thought that would interfere in the fight. They were completely [biased].”