Taiwan’s Rocky Lee suffered his first loss in his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut on Saturday in Krakow, Poland, dropping a unanimous decision to Taylor Lapilus of France.
The bout was a preliminary for UFC Fight Night 64. In the main event, Croatia’s Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic avenged his 2007 knockout at the hands of Gabriel Gonzaga with a third-round TKO.
Lee was a semi-finalist on The Ultimate Fighter: China reality television show. He is the first Taiwanese mixed martial artist to fight contracted to the UFC, although Kaohsiung-born Taiwanese American Andy Wang competed in the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter.
In Lapilus, he faced a much more experienced fighter and a southpaw with an almost 13cm reach advantage. Lee sought to negate that reach advantage by trying to take the fight to the ground from the get-go. His initial efforts at a takedown were derailed by a low blow, but after a short timeout, he once again had Lapilus in the clinch against the cage, this time scoring a single-leg takedown. However, Lapilus quickly got to his feet and threatened a standing guillotine choke. Lee was able to work free, but suffered a number of knees before he did. The scene repeated itself as Lee again had to free himself from a standing guillotine and Lapilus began landing one-two combinations and knees, while stuffing Lee’s takedown attempts. Lee landed a kick to the body to end out the round.
Lapilus began the second round aggressively, landing a straight left and knee to Lee’s head. Lee scored another takedown, but Lapilus worked his way back to his feet against the cage and landed punches. Lapilus increasingly dominated the exchanges and had Lee’s nose streaming blood midway through the round. Lee landed a hard kick to the body to end the round, but clearly lost the round.
Lapilus continued to dominate the exchanges in the third and landed two takedowns on his way to winning all three rounds on each of the judges’ scorecards.
Lee’s record falls to 3-1-0, while Lapilus’ improves to 9-1-0.
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