News of a lightweight bout emerged today featuring Gabe Ruediger (17-6) and Paul Taylor (10-6-1) for the upcoming UFC 126 event in Las Vegas.
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 126 is set to take place on Feb. 5th at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card is expected to be headlined by a UFC middleweight title bout between champion Anderson Silva and #1 contender Vitor Belfort.
Update: MMAWeekly.com had reported the bout was scheduled for UFC 127, but they have since updated that bit of news identifying the event as UFC 126.