Taylor Lapilus re-signs with UFC, meets Khalid Taha on Sept. 3 in Paris

Taylor Lapilus is back on the UFC roster.

Lapilus (18-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) meets Khalid Taha (13-4-1 MMA, 1-3-1 UFC) at the UFC’s Fight Night event in Paris, which takes place on Sept. 3 at Accor Arena.

Two people with knowledge of the matchup recently informed MMA Junkie of the booking but asked to remain anonymous since the promotion has yet to make an official announcement. Culture MMA was first to report the booking.

Lapilus was unexpectedly let go by the promotion in 2016 after compiling a 3-1 record. The 30-year-old parted ways with the UFC after a unanimous decision win over Leandro Issa at UFC Fight Night 93 and since has been on the road back to the octagon. Lapilus has won both the TKO and Ares FC bantamweight titles and has wins over notables Josh Hill, Nate Maness and Wilson Reis in his five-fight winning streak.

Taha is winless in his past three octagon appearances. He’s coming off back-to-back unanimous decision losses to Raoni Barcelos and, most recently, Sergey Morozov at UFC on ESPN 26 in July 2021. His lone octagon win was a 25-second knockout of Boston Salmon at UFC 236, after which a submission win over Bruno Silva at UFC 243 was overturned due to a positive test for furosemide, a diuretic clinically used for curing congestive heart failure, liver disease and other related illnesses.

With the addition, the UFC Paris lineup includes:

• Ciryl Gane vs. Tai Tuivasa
• Marvin Vettori vs. Robert Whittaker
• Katlyn Chookagian vs. Manon Fiorot
• Joaquin Buckley vs. Nassourdine Imavov
• Absupiyan Magomedov vs. Makhmud Muradov
• Zarah Fairn vs. Ailin Perez
• Alessio Di Chirico vs. Roman Kopylov
• Nasrat Haqparast vs. John Makdessi
• Joel Alvarez vs. Magomed Mustafaev
• Taylor Lapilus vs. Khalid Taha