Lerone Murphy has his eyes firmly fixed on those above him in the UFC rankings following his win over Josh Emmett in the main event at UFC Vegas 105 on Saturday night.
Murphy (16-0-1 MMA, 8-0-1 UFC) emerged victorious on the judge’s scorecards (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) after 25 minutes to cap a second main event victory in his UFC tenure to date.
“The Miracle” came in to Saturday’s match-up at the UFC Apex armed with a gameplan to remain composed and not get drawn into a firefight with Emmett, who is renowned as one of the hardest hitters in the featherweight division. Although he was unable to secure a finish, Murphy is very pleased with his performance overall.
“That was the exact gameplan, what you saw there: pick him off at range, catch him on the way in,” Murphy told reporters at Saturday’s post-fight news conference. “Obviously, I wanted the finish – finishes are just not coming at the minute, but masterful performance anyway. We’re just chasing them finishes, chasing them wins, racking up them wins, and aiming for that title.”
Murphy Has Eyes On Former Title Challenger
Since drawing his UFC debut against Zubaira Tukhugov back in 2019, Murphy has now won eight on the bounce, and will likely move up in the pecking order when the updated featherweight rankings are released this week.
His long-term aim is to challenge for the 145-pound title, and the Mancunian sees a fight against 6th-ranked Brian Ortega (16-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) as a way to get closer to that goal.
“Just a fight I’ve been looking at for a while, and obviously, you see Diego Lopes go on to get a title shot after beating him, so I want to take a similar route,” Murphy said. “I fought Dan Ige, same as Lopes too, so yeah man, give me one of them guys.”
