UFC Paris: Who is Caolan Loughran?
By Anwesha Nag
UFC Paris, set to go down this weekend on Saturday, September 2, will see Caolan Loughran make his much anticipated debut in the promotion.
Loughran, 27, is a mixed martial arts fighter hailing from Tyrone, Ireland. He is associated with Team Kaobon based in Liverpool, London, and trains under Colin Herron. An undefeated bantamweight prospect with a perfect 8-0 record, Loughran is also a former Cage Warriors champion at 135 pounds.
After a series of amateur fights of which he only lost two, Loughran made his MMA debut in September 2019 against Reece Street at MTK MMA - Probellum. He won the fight via first-round TKO. He went on to amass three more wins before making his debut in the Cage Warriors against Bakhtyaar Oryakhail. Loughran secured a second-round finish after an impressive display of striking skills.
Two more TKOs in the promotion finally earned Loughran the title shot against the undefeated Italian, Dylan Hazan. The fight took place earlier this year in May at Cage Warriors 154 in Rome, Italy. He silenced his opponent with yet another second-round TKO in front of the latter's home crowd and became the new CW bantamweight champion.
Shortly after Loughran's title win, he was scooped up by the UFC with a multi-fight deal.
Caolan Loughran was originally scheduled to fight Frenchman Yanis Ghemmouri, a veteran of LFC, Brave CF, and UAE Warriors. But due to several fight cancelations, he'll now face Taylor Lapilus.
Caolan Loughran is only the fifth fighter from Ireland to be signed by the UFC, after Conor McGregor, Ian Garry, Shauna Bannon, and Rhys McKee. Like one of his iconic predecessors, Loughran seems to be confident in his ability to put his opponents to sleep.
At press time, Loughran is scheduled to open up the main card which is rare for a debutant.
UFC Paris will be headlined by a heavyweight clash between Ciryl Gane and Serghei Spivac. The co-main event will see Rose Namajunas make her flyweight debut against No. 3-ranked Manon Fiorot.
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