Lerone Murphy secured his seventh straight win inside the Octagon this past weekend but he had to battle some adversity before getting his hand raised.
Top 15 featherweights met in Abu Dhabi at UFC 308 where Manchester's "The Miracle" squared off with Dan Ige.
Though Murphy won the fight via a unanimous decision, the most significant strike was landed by Ige who dropped the Brit in the first round.
The Manchester Top Team was happy to come away with the win but he admitted during an interview on The Ariel Helwani Show that the fight was tougher than he expected because of his own mistakes:
"Yeah it was, I didn't underestimate Ige, he's been in there with the best of people, I highly rate him actually so I expected a tough fight but I made it harder for myself. I don't want to make any excuses but there was a few other factors that I believe played into why the fight went like that but yeah, I believe I just made the fight harder than it was but obviously, Dan brought the fight to me early and yeah, he done well and the knockdown was pretty sick."
After coming through this test, Murphy now has wins over two ranked opponents but is looking to face a top 10 featherweight next time out.
He called to face Josh Emmett in his post-fight interview, explaining the pick the following Monday.
"Looking at the rankings, he's coming off a big knockout win over Bryce Mitchell. I would have called out Brian Ortega but he's coming off a loss and I don't really believe in that but I think it's a good fight. Him or Josh Emmett. They're both what, five and six maybe? I can't remember the rankings now but anybody in that top 10 to be honest. I don't really discriminate but I just believe that Josh Emmett is a scary match-up, power puncher again like Topuria and I believe he'll bring the best out of me, that's why I called him out but I think the Ortega fight's a good fight too."
Murphy was also able to take something away from sharing the card with the two men that are at the very top of his division.
Though it was only a brief interaction, the unbeaten contender shared a room with the 145-pound champion, Ilia Topuria.
Murphy recalled how completely relaxed "El Matador" was despite the fact that he was about to compete in one of the biggest main events of the year against Max Holloway.
He said that Topuria walked over to him and offered one piece of advice that has stuck with him, "It's just another day of sparring."
Murphy recounted the exchange and how unfazed the champion was during his final preparations.
"Bro, he's relaxed. He was already counting his money before even going into the fight, that's how relaxed he was. He had his top off, he's chilling, cracking jokes and for him to come over to me and say that is like, you're relaxed bro. He's relaxed and he's fighting a killer."
Watch the full interview below:
