Lerone Murphy’s undefeated rise up the featherweight standings continued on Saturday night, but it was no easy showcase.
The 145-pound contender fought tooth and nail for 25 minutes against former interim title challenger Josh Emmett, walking away with an incredibly tight unanimous decision result to mark his biggest win yet as a pro.
Murphy’s highly important victory closed out a UFC “Fight Night” card from the promotion’s APEX venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA this weekend.
The English talent’s diverse striking output gave him a slight scorecard nod versus the boxing and wrestling gameplan of Emmett, winning by just one round on a pair of scorecards (48-47, 48-47 & 49-46).
While Emmett mainly focused on charging forward against Murphy with quick flurries of punches and trying to find openings for his wrestling, Murphy had a much more varied style. Elbows, jabs, crosses, leg kicks, front kicks to the leg, and body kicks were all mixed up as part of his arsenal, keeping Emmett guessing.
Murphy’s success with his style allowed him to out-land Emmett in rounds two through five, and caused him to wobble the vet numerous times, too. Emmett was visibly hurt by a leg kick in the second and fourth rounds, and Murphy also connected with a flush left hand, which seemingly rocked Emmett in the final moments of the bout.
Judges Ben Cartlidge, Eric Colon and Sal D’Amato were in agreement about how the bout went through two rounds, seeing it as tied. Emmett snagged the opening five minutes of the fight with his boxing, having a stronger start compared to Murphy.
The American found success with a pair of takedowns in the second frame, but it was the kicks and punches of Murphy which persuaded the judges more, making it 19-19 after 10 minutes.
The official scorecards started to disagree with each other as the fight went deeper. One judge saw Emmett win the third round, while another saw him nab the final frame. Meanwhile, a third saw Murphy not drop another round for the rest of the fight. Emmett’s advancing, aggressive style didn’t fade as the fight went into the late minutes, and Murphy was able to continue landing despite being the backpedalling fighter. None of the rounds were a wash for either competitor.
But after 25 minutes, the officials and many onlookers were in agreement: Murphy was the better fighter. While it was certainly a close contest, he walked away with a unanimous decision win. All 14 media scorecards on MMADecisions.com saw him as the winner as well.
“I just had to fight my game,” Murphy said in his post-fight interview. “He’s a dangerous fighter, everybody knows. He’s got one-punch knockout power. You have to fight a certain fight at the top level. I couldn’t make any mistakes … [He] didn’t really catch me with anything clean. I was sound defensively. My wrestling was good. He only took me down when I threw sloppy kicks. I dropped him with my left hand. Nice elbows. It was a quality performance.”
Manchester Top Team talent Murphy has now attained eight wins since he joined the UFC roster in 2019. He has pieced together a trio of big performances in the division over the past year, previously also beating respected gatekeeper Edson Barboza in a five-round outing and getting by long-time contender Dan Ige in a three-rounder. Those fights, along with his performance against Emmett on Saturday, have made him one of the rising names in the division to keep an eye on.
Murphy entered this week ranked 10th at featherweight, but could climb up a couple more spots after defeating eighth-place Emmett.
While a highly-valued contender in the division, Murphy is realistically still a couple of fights out from a title shot. He seemed to be aware of this after his win, not calling for a championship opportunity next but instead campaigning for a fight with one of the other top names in the division.
“Obviously, I want a title,” Murphy said. “But give me anybody in that top five, top three. Give me one of them guys, I’ll fight again in July. Let’s go man. I just want to keep this train going. I want to get to the championship, I want to stay active, another two fights this year.”
Emmett was making his return to action after more than a year out of the cage, a time he said was spent getting himself back into his best physical form. His last fight was a highlight-reel knockout, stopping Bryce Mitchell in a little under two minutes with an overhand right at UFC 296 in late 2023.
He lost a pair of pivotal bouts in the division earlier that year, getting submitted in an interim title shot against Yair Rodriguez, then losing a decision to Ilia Topuria, who would go on to win the UFC Featherweight Championship in his next appearance.
While unsuccessful this weekend, Emmett proved that at 40 years old he can still put out a competitive performance against some of the featherweight division’s best, a level of physical longevity that many others have failed to accomplish in the sport.
Here are the quick results from Saturday’s show:
Main Card (9:00PM EDT / 6:00PM PDT) (ESPN / ESPN+)
Bout 12: Lerone Murphy def. Josh Emmett via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 11: Pat Sabatini def. Joanderson Brito via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 10: Lee Chang-ho def. Cortavious Romious via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 3:48)
Bout 9: Brad Tavares def. Gerald Meerschaert via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 8: Ode Osbourne def. Luis Gurule via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 1:54)
Bout 7: Torrez Finney def. Robert Valentin via Decision, Split
Preliminary Card (6:00PM EDT / 3:00PM PDT) (ESPN / ESPN+)
Bout 6: Dione Barbosa def. Diana Belbita via Submission, Arm Triangle Choke (RD 1, 4:13)
Bout 5: Rhys McKee def. Daniel Frunza via TKO, Doctor Stoppage (RD 1, 5:00)
Bout 4: Loma Lookboonmee def. Istela Nunes via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 3: Victor Henry def. Pedro Falcao via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 2: Martin Buday def. Uran Satybaldiev via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 1: Talita Alencar def. Vanessa Demopoulos via Decision, Unanimous
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