UFC Fight Night 234 Prelims: Farid Basharat Hurdles Taylor Lapilus, Stays Perfect at 12-0

Farid Basharat answered a lot of questions regarding his status as a future contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division.

Repeated takedowns, time-consuming clinches and superior activity in the standup exchanges carried the undefeated Xtreme Couture standout to a unanimous decision over former TKO Major League MMA champion Taylor Lapilus in a featured UFC Fight Night 234 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. All three cageside judges scored it the same: 30-27 for Basharat (12-0, 3-0 UFC).

Lapilus (19-4, 4-2 UFC), who suffered his first setback in almost 2,000 days, was a difficult nut to crack but had no real answer for his adversary’s relentless tenacity. Basharat pursued takedowns in all three rounds, even as many of them were negated, and kept his foot on the accelerator for 15 minutes. He ducked into a takedown behind an overhand right in the third round, set up in side control and eventually threatened the Frenchman with an anaconda choke. The resourceful Lapilus survived, but the fight had long since been lost.

Meanwhile, Elevate MMA product Preston Parsons leaned into a deeper gas tank and better all-terrain skills, as he laid claim to a unanimous decision over Matthew Semelsberger in a three-round welterweight scrap. Parsons (11-4, 2-2 UFC) swept the scorecards with matching 30-27 marks from all three members of the cageside judiciary.

A short-notice fill-in for Bassil Hafez, Semelsberger (11-7, 5-5 UFC) never got in gear. Parsons bested him with striking output in the first round, then opened a cut near his right eye with an elbow strike and threatened him with an armbar in the second. An exhausted Semelsberger had little recourse available to him in Round 3. Parsons struck for a takedown, framed a kimura and ultimately climbed to full mount before making a final pass at an arm-triangle.

Semelsberger has now suffered three straight defeats.

Further down the undercard, MMA Lab’s Marcus McGhee wiped out Bellator MMA veteran Gaston Bolanos with punches in the second round of their bantamweight encounter. Bolanos (7-4, 1-1 UFC) met his end 3:29 into Round 2.

McGhee (9-1, 3-0 UFC) nearly finished it in the first round, where he battered the Combat Sports Academy product with power punches to the body and head, followed a clean right hook into a takedown and piled on the punishment with ferocious ground-and-pound. Bolanos’ situation only deteriorated from there. McGhee dropped him with a right hook in the middle stanza, allowed him to stand, gave chase with a glancing wheel kick and prompted a standing stoppage with a crackling left hook.

The 33-year-old McGhee will ride a five-fight winning streak into his next assignment.

Related » UFC Fight Night 234 Round-by-Round Scoring

Not to be upstaged, Fighting Nerds prospect Jean Silva filled in as a short-notice substitution for Gabriel Santos and disposed of a woefully overmatched Westin Wilson with punches in the first round of their featherweight clash. Wilson (16-9, 0-2 UFC) bowed out 4:12 into Round 1.

The explosive Silva (12-2, 1-0 UFC) connected with power punches from both hands and forced his opponent into survival mode from the start. He decked the 6-foot-1 Wilson with a left hook-straight right, kept him in a state of retreat, trapped him along the fence and prompted the stoppage with a flurry of uppercuts.

The 27-year-old Silva has won nine fights in a row, eight of them finishes.

Elsewhere, Xtreme Couture’s Nikolas Motta took care of previously unbeaten 2023 Dana White’s Contender Series graduate Tom Nolan with unanswered punches in the first round of their lightweight affair. The 23-year-old Nolan (6-1, 0-1 UFC) succumbed to blows 63 seconds into Round 1.

Motta (14-5, 2-2 UFC) stayed calm under considerable fire—his Australian counterpart tried to blow out his base with kicks—and waited for the opportune time to unleash his hands. He sat down Nolan with a concussive two-punch burst, forced the Team Compton Training Centre export to all fours and continued to smash him with punches until referee Dan Miragliotta had seen enough.

The win was Motta’s first since Sept. 17, 2022.

Finally, former Fury Fighting Championship titleholder Joshua Van stepped in as a short-notice replacement for Denys Bondar and put away Felipe Bunes with punches in the second round of their flyweight pairing. Van (10-1, 3-0 UFC) closed it out 4:31 into Round 2.

Bunes (13-7, 0-1 UFC) maximized his four-inch reach advantage throughout the first round, as he peppered the Myanmar native with low kicks, clean one-twos and occasional knees up the middle. He struck for a takedown late in the period and eventually climbed to full mount before the horn sounded. From there, Bunes ran out of steam. Van broke down the Brazilian with pressure and persistence, unleashing hellacious punching combinations to the head and body. He floored Bunes with a right hook at close range, assumed a dominant position and cut loose with ground-and-pound until the job was done.

Van, 22, has rattled off eight consecutive victories.