Lerone Murphy has revealed his frustration at being passed over for a title shot.
Murphy (17-0-1 MMA, 9-0-1 UFC) appeared to have moved into pole position to become the first challenger of Alexander Volkanovski’s (27-4 MMA, 14-3 UFC) second featherweight title reign after securing the biggest win of his career in his most recent outing, when he knocked out Aaron Pico at UFC 319 last August.
Murphy’s spinning elbow finish over the former Bellator standout was one of the most memorable moments of 2025 and seemed to put to rest any accusations that “The Miracle” is not an exciting enough fighter to compete for championship gold.
While that victory appeared to push the Englishman ahead of fellow contenders such as Movsar Evloev (19-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) and Diego Lopes (27-7 MMA, 6-2 UFC), UFC matchmakers surprised many by selecting Lopes to face Volkanovski in this weekend’s UFC 325 headliner in Sydney, Australia.
Lopes, who lost to Volkanovski at UFC 314 last April, is from Brazil but has lived and trained in Mexico for many years, something Murphy believes played a significant role in Lopes receiving another title shot this weekend.
“Diego Lopez is the same as me, really and truly,” Murphy told Henry Cejudo and Kamaru Usman during an appearance on Pound4Pound Podcast. “It's just that he has a big Mexican market, but he doesn't speak and call people out. So what's the difference?”
Rather than spend time feeling sorry for himself, Murphy is itching to get back inside the Octagon, and wants to take on his fellow unbeaten contender Evloev in order to compete for the next title shot at 145 pounds.
“You give me Evloev…the hardest fight,” Murphy said. “I think that's the biggest matchup to make. You give me Evloev and you make Yair (Rodriguez) and (Aljamain) Sterling fight. If he doesn't hold on and make it boring, it would be a banger, but obviously that'll be my job to defensive wrestle him and break off and time something.
“I think that’s the fight to make. Everyone says that it’s either me or him that’s next in line, so eliminate one (of us) and get it cracking.”
