{"id":322201,"date":"2025-12-02T06:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322201\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T06:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:49:12","slug":"lerone-murphy-hurt-after-missing-out-on-ufc-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322201\/","title":{"rendered":"Lerone Murphy \u2018hurt\u2019 after missing out on UFC title shot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">One of those contenders is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-mma-rankings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No. 4-ranked<\/a> Lerone Murphy, fresh off one of the best knockouts of the year against blazing-hot prospect Aaron Pico (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-319-du-plessis-vs-chimaev-start-time-full-results-espn-mma\/383346\/highlights-lerone-murphy-ices-aaron-pico-with-epic-spinning-back-elbow-knockout-ufc-319\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWhen I first found out, I fell out of love with it for a bit, I\u2019m not going to lie,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI 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\u2019s the way it goes. That\u2019s what hurt me the most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Still, Murphy says he\u2019s trying to move past it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI have to get over it. It is what it is \u2014 it\u2019s business,\u201d Murphy added. \u201cJust keep fighting, keep doing what you\u2019re doing, keep winning, and we\u2019ll get there eventually. I think it\u2019s inevitable that it\u2019s gonna happen, and you know I\u2019m going to be champion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI\u2019m not crying. You can\u2019t tell me to get to work,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI\u2019ve won nine fights in a row, so no one can tell me to get to work. I\u2019ve fought whoever the UFC has given me. I\u2019ve not ducked fights. I\u2019ve said yes. In my opinion, I\u2019ve done the UFC a favor by taking the Pico fight on three weeks\u2019 notice. I believe he\u2019s top five in the division, for sure. I feel he\u2019s one of the best there, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-events-ppv\/383611\/aaron-pico-releases-statement-after-really-bad-knockout-loss-at-ufc-319\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> I went out and knocked him out<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With the title picture set for now, Murphy expects to return in a No. 1 contender fight in the first quarter of 2026 \u2014 ideally on home soil in the U.K.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of those contenders is No. 4-ranked Lerone Murphy, fresh off one of the best knockouts of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,14855],"class_list":{"0":"post-322201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news","15":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}