Irish bantamweight Caolan Loughran made his promotional debut at Saturday’s UFC Paris, the promotion’s second trip to France after their debut last year. Originally paired up with Yanis Ghemmouri, a shuffling of the deck saw the undefeated Loughran taking on Taylor Lapilus instead.
Ahead of the fight, Loughran had proclaimed loudly that French MMA “sucked,” essentially making himself public enemy number one for the night.
With the crowd roaring to start the fight, hometown favorite Lapilus opened up with a stiff jab. He landed a very strong left cross that was really sharp. Loughran wasn’t getting anything off on the feet so he shot in on a takedown. He switched to a single-leg against the cage but Lapilus defended. Loughran was giving Lapilus little space but the straight punches and jabs were landing from Lapilus. Loughran was doing a lot of things including utilizing feints. He did land a nice combination into a completed takedown. Lapilus got back to his feet and landed a straight left to close the round.
Loughran was aggressive in round two. He walked through a jab to get the double-leg takedown. Loughran solidified his position on top. He took the back of Lapilus but was too high and he fell off and they went right back to the feet. Loughran went right back to the well pushing Lapilus against the cage working for a takedown. Lapilus defended and fell back on his fast-snapping jab. To end the round Lapilus landed a left hand and a few inside leg kicks.
Loughran was just charging forward in the final round. He took some shots from Lapilus but was able to get the French fighter against the cage. Lapilus had good defense stopping the takedowns over and over. Every time Loughran separated he threw a few shots and shot back in but couldn’t find the takedown. Lapilus was patient and was just picking apart Loughran at space with the jab. The accuracy from Lapilus was insane landing at a high clip respected by some wonderful vision. The Frenchman picked up the pace to end the round with those straight punches and leg kicks, which appeared to be enough to push him to victory.
Official Result: Taylor Lapilus def. Caolan Loughran by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
