Rivalries: Taylor Lapilus

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Achievement has not kept Taylor Lapilus from being overlooked in the grand scheme.

Easily one of France’s most accomplished and underappreciated stars, the 33-year-old MMA Factory export will make his Professional Fighters League debut when he squares off with Ali Taleb in the 2025 PFL Europe 2 bantamweight co-main event on Saturday at ING Arena in Brussels, Belgium. Lapilus has rattled off eight wins across his past nine outings. Twice released by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he last suited up at UFC Fight Night 243, where he improved to 6-2 inside the Octagon and took a three-round unanimous decision from Vince Morales on Sept. 28.

As Lapilus approaches his forthcoming battle with Taleb at 135 pounds, a look at a few of the rivalries that have helped shape his career to this point:

Erik Perez

The Alliance MMA rep made the necessary mid- to-late fight adjustments in claiming a unanimous decision over Lapilus as part of the UFC Fight Night 78 undercard on Nov. 21, 2015 at Monterrey Arena in Monterrey, Mexico. All three cageside judges turned in 29-28 scorecards. Operating in the shadows of the Neil Magny-Kelvin Gastelum main event, Lapilus mixed his punches with kicks and countered beautifully throughout a competitive first round, giving “El Goyito” few openings with which to work. Perez withstood an attempted guillotine choke early in the second, assumed top position and slowly turned the tide in his favor. He pushed a pace Lapilus could not match in Round 3, where he landed a key takedown and salted away the victory with an active top game and some ground-and-pound. The defeat halted a five-fight winning streak for Lapilus.

Demarte Pena

Lapilus laid claim to the vacant Ares Fighting Championship at Ares 5, where he turned away the South African standout with elbows and punches in the first round of their April 16, 2022 main event at Dome de Paris in Paris. Pena succumbed to blows 2:33 into Round 1 in what remains the only stoppage loss of his career. Lapilus forced his counterpart onto his back foot, warded off a few punching bursts and delivered a brutal knee strike to the liver. Pena doubled over in visible distress, then clung to a single-leg in a bid to recover. Lapilus shook free, pinned “The Wolf” to the fence and drove him to the mat with elbows over the top. Standing-to-ground punches followed, and referee Marc Goddard arrived to wave it off just as Pena tapped the canvas in surrender.

Caolan Loughran

A crisp jab, clean combinations and stout takedown defense carried Lapilus to a unanimous decision over the previously undefeated Irishman in the featured UFC Fight Night 226 prelim on Sept. 2, 2023 at a raucous Accor Arena in Paris. In his first Octagon appearance since 2016, Lapilus carried all three cards with 29-28 scores. Loughran had considerable difficulty navigating a five-inch reach deficit. The former Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder secured takedowns in the first and second rounds, only to see avenues to create offense dry up in a hurry. Lapilus stayed upright enough to handle business, firing away with jabs and surgical left hands—he outstruck Loughran by a 99-49 margin—to cruise to the checkered flag.

Farid Basharat

Repeated takedowns, time-consuming clinches and superior activity in the standup exchanges carried the undefeated Xtreme Couture standout to a unanimous decision over Lapilus as part of the UFC Fight Night 234 undercard on Jan. 13, 2024 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. All three cageside judges scored it 30-27 for Basharat. Lapilus, who suffered his first setback in almost 2,000 days, was a difficult nut to crack but had no real answer for his adversary’s relentless tenacity. Basharat pursued takedowns in all three rounds, even as many of them were negated, and kept his foot on the accelerator for 15 minutes. He ducked into a takedown behind an overhand right in the third round, set up in side control and eventually threatened the Frenchman with an anaconda choke. The resourceful Lapilus survived, but the fight had long since been lost.