Lapilus meets McKee for the bantamweight title

Taylor Lapilus meets Mitch McKee for the inaugural PFL bantamweight title on Saturday, December 19, at LDLC Arena in Lyon. The fight is the main event of PFL Lyon. Bantamweight is 135 pounds (61 kg), and the belt is vacant. PFL lists McKee at No. 1 and Lapilus at No. 3.

Lapilus is 34 and 25-4, and 4-0 in the PFL. Lapilus beat Jake Hadley by unanimous decision, 30-27 on all three cards, at PFL Brussels on May 23, 2026, and Hadley fell to 12-6. Lapilus stopped Kasum Kasumov with ground-and-pound at 0:47 of the third round at PFL Dubai in February 2026, and Lapilus has won six in a row. He went 6-2 in the UFC. Lapilus beat Ali Taleb by unanimous decision at PFL Europe 2 in July 2025 in his PFL debut, and he beat Liam Gittins by unanimous decision at PFL Europe 4 in Lyon last December. He also won the Ares FC bantamweight title. In the UFC he beat Cody Stamann, Caolan Loughran, and Vince Morales by decision, and UFC Paris hosted the Morales bout. A win would make him one of the first French fighters to hold an undisputed world MMA title.

McKee is 28 and 11-0, and 1-0 in the PFL, and six of the wins are knockouts. McKee beat Sergio Pettis by unanimous decision, 29-28 on all three cards, at 5:00 of the third round, at PFL Chicago on April 11, in his PFL debut, and he knocked out Pedro Nobre with hooks at 3:02 of the second round.

PFL Lyon is the last event under the PFL name. From January 1, 2027, the promotion’s events run as Most Valuable Promotions.

The card

PFL lists six more bouts. Boris Atangana meets Bryan Battle at middleweight. Abdoul Abdouraguimov meets Andreeas Binder at welterweight. Fabian Edwards meets Ilian Bouafia at middleweight. Bafode Gassama meets Coby Bradford at light heavyweight. Brandon Brachet meets Adam Meskini at featherweight. Mathilde Aschenbrenner meets Miracle Chipito at women’s strawweight.

Start time

The United States broadcast is the ESPN App. RMC Sport has the card in France.

Central European Time is one hour ahead of UTC in December, and Sydney is on daylight time, eleven hours ahead of UTC.

Early card and main card in Lyon:

• Lyon: 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.
• London: 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Sydney: 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday

In New York that is 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern, and in Las Vegas that is 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. Pacific. The first clock is the early card, and the second is the main card. LDLC Arena lists the event for 5 p.m.