News of a lightweight bout emerged today featuring Gabe Ruediger (17-6) and Paul Taylor (10-6-1) for the upcoming UFC 127 event in Australia.MMAWeekly.com was the first to report the bout, noting that the paperwork has been issued to both fighters for the upcoming fight.
Ruediger had been scheduled to face British fighter Paul Kelly at UFC 123 after a war of words between the two, but a groin injury forced him off the card. He had hoped to face Kelly at another date but will instead face Taylor.
Ruediger returned to the UFC last August, losing to Joe Lauzon via armbar submission in the first round. The former WEC lightweight champion’s last appearance in the octagon was back in Sept. of 2008 where he was KO’d by Melvin Guillard. He earned his way back into the UFC by winning six straight fights, earning the vacant Tachi Palace Fights lightweight title in that time.
Taylor is on a two fight losing skid and is certainly looking at expulsion from the UFC should he lose to Ruediger. He is 1-2 in his last three and just 2-5 in his last seven. So far in the UFC his record is 3-5 with three “Fight of the Night” honors to his name. He last appeared at UFC 121 losing a split decision to Sam Stout and dropped a unanimous decision to John Hathaway at UFC 105 before that.
With the WEC-UFC merger taking place a loss for either fighter will mean the chopping block for their UFC careers.
UFC 127 is expected to take place on Feb. 27th at the Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia, just the second visit by the promotion to that venue.
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