Lerone Murphy sees a clear path to a title shot and he’s following the lead of the man fighting for the belt at UFC 314 to get there.
Following a unanimous decision win over Josh Emmett in the UFC Vegas 105 main event, the undefeated British featherweight identified Brian Ortega as an ideal opponent when it comes to what’s next for him. There’s no personal beef involved, but instead Murphy points to Diego Lopes beating Ortega before getting his shot at gold against Alexander Volkanovski as the same road he would like to travel down.
“Just a fight I’ve been looking at for a while,” Murphy said at the UFC Vegas 105 post-fight press conference about fighting Ortega . “Obviously you see Diego Lopes get a title shot after beating him so I want to take a similar route. I fought Dan Ige, same as Lopes, too. Just give me one of them guys.”
Following his win on Saturday, Murphy immediately asked for any opponent in the top 5 from the featherweight division as he looks to move that much closer to title contention.
With a 16-0-1 record, Murphy has the résumé to push for those kinds of fights, although even he admits his lack of finishes leaves him somewhat frustrated. With his latest win over Emmett, the 33-year-old fighter from Manchester has gone to decision in seven out of nine fights in the UFC.
“That was the exact game plan what you saw there,” Murphy said about his win. “Pick him off at range, catch him on the way in. Obviously, I wanted the finish. The finishes are just not coming at the minute.
“But a masterful performance over anyway. We’re just chasing them finishes, chasing them wins, racking up the wins and aiming for that title.”
As much as he wanted to put Emmett away before the final horn sounded, Murphy knew he was playing with fire by standing in the pocket with a noted knockout artist. That’s why constant movement and picking away at Emmett from the outside made up the biggest part of Murphy’s strategy, which paid off in the end.
“I took a few shots on the gloves, really didn’t take anything clean,” Murphy said. “Obviously, I knew he hit hard. He’s put some good fighters out cold. For me it was stay safe and be good defensively.”
The final scorecards all favored Murphy, but he was a bit surprised two judges actually gave Emmett two rounds in the five round fight. Though the result was the same, Murphy doesn’t understand how those judges saw enough to give Emmett another round.
“I thought I won four rounds very clearly,” Murphy said. “If you won one of the rounds, it’s because I threw a kick and he got top position but I don’t think he landed anything clean throughout the rounds. I think he was a bit more busy in one of the rounds and that was it.”
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