IRISH FIGHTERS RHYS McKee and Caolan Loughran both suffered unanimous decision defeats at UFC Fight Night Paris on Saturday night.
Antrim’s McKee was making his second debut for MMA’s top promotion, where he fought and was beaten twice in 2020.
The 27-year-old was beaten 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 by Ange Loosa on the preliminary card of Ciryl Gane and Serghei Spivac’s heavyweight bout at the Accor Arena.
Loosa, who made it back-to-back UFC wins and took his pro record to 10-3, said afterwards: “I thought I was going to finish him in the second [round], but Rhys is a champ for a reason – he’s a tough guy so he was hard to finish… that was a tough fight.”
Later in the preliminaries, Tyrone native Caolan Loughran suffered his first professional defeat against home fighter Taylor Lapilus, who improved to 19-3.
Loughran — making his UFC debut — was beaten 29-28 on all three judges’ cards.
“Caolan’s a very good opponent,” said Lapilus, who had been fighting outside the UFC since 2016.
“He’s very well-rounded, good in wrestling, good in boxing.
In the main event, Gane stopped Spivac with a second-round TKO to stake his claim for a heavyweight title shot.
