Lerone Murphy Addresses UFC Title Shot Snub, Reveals How He Really Felt
Lerone Murphy has shared his candid opinion on how he felt when he found out that he won’t be fighting UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski next, as Volkanovski will run it back with Diego Lopes.
‘The Great’ will make his first defense of the 145-pound championship of his second reign, at UFC 325 vs. Lopes.
Volkanovski and Lopes fought for the vacant strap earlier this year at UFC 314, and the Australian cruised to a unanimous decision win and became a two-time UFC featherweight champion. He was expected to face Movsar Evloev or Lerone Murphy next. However, to everyone’s surprise, the UFC announced the rematch with Lopes.
Murphy, who is the number four-ranked featherweight contender, considered himself to be next in line to challenge ‘The Great,’ especially after knocking out Aaron Pico in Round 1 at UFC 319. However, he admitted that after UFC 325 was announced, he fell “out of love” with the sport for some time. During an interview with Ariel Helwani, ‘The Miracle’ said:
“When I first found out… I fell out of love with it for a bit, I’m not gonna lie. I got into MMA over boxing because I thought there were no politics. I thought it was simply: do the work, the best fight the best, and that’s the way it goes. That’s what hurt me the most. I have to get over it — it is what it is, it’s business. Just keep fighting, keep doing what you’re doing, keep winning, and we’ll get there eventually. I think it’s inevitable that it’s gonna happen, and you know I’m going to be champion.”
Check out Lerone Murphy’s comments below:
Lerone Murphy claps back at Diego Lopes
Lerone Murphy has reacted to Diego Lopes’ post on X in which the Brazilian asked other featherweight contenders to “get to work and stop whining.” During the same interview posted above, the Brit stated that he has won nine fights in a row and faced everybody the UFC put in front of him, including the deadly Aaron Pico on short notice, whom he knocked out in three minutes and 21 seconds. Reacting to Lopes’s comments, ‘The Miracle’ quipped:
“You can’t tell me to get to work. I’ve won nine fights in a row, so no one can tell me to get to work. I’ve fought whoever the UFC has given me. In my opinion, I’ve done the UFC a favor by taking the Pico fight on three weeks’ notice. He’s a dangerous guy. I believe he’s top five in the division, for sure… and I went out and knocked him out.”
Check out Lerone Murphy’s comments below:
