{"id":552614,"date":"2026-03-20T10:40:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/552614\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T10:40:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T10:40:28","slug":"movsar-evloev-fires-back-at-boring-ufc-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/552614\/","title":{"rendered":"Movsar Evloev fires back at \u2018boring\u2019 UFC criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 1-ranked<\/a> Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight Movsar Evloev finally returns to action this weekend (Sat., March 21, 2026), taking on No. 3-ranked Lerone Murphy in the main event of UFC London<\/a> inside the O2 Arena in London, England.<\/p>\n

With nine wins over high-level competition inside the Octagon, there\u2019s no denying Evloev is one of the best Featherweights in the world. However, there\u2019s one glaring knock on his resume \u2014 zero finishes \u2014 which has led many fans to label him as a \u201cboring\u201d fighter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Evloev isn\u2019t buying that narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly casual people think I\u2019m boring; they don\u2019t understand what MMA really is,\u201d Evloev said during UFC London media day. \u201cPeople who know the game understand how hard it is to stay undefeated at this level. Being No. 1 ranked is no joke. I\u2019m always looking for finishes, but maybe it\u2019s just not my style. I make my opponents tired with my technical work. At the end of the day, victory is the most important thing, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

He doubled down on that mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a finish and I don\u2019t win \u2014 like if my opponent finishes me \u2014 maybe fans will be happy because it\u2019s exciting, but not me. I don\u2019t accept that,\u201d Evloev said. \u201cIf my only way to win [is to wrestle], then I would be stupid not to use it. But I will use everything that works \u2014 you will see Saturday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the lack of finishes has hurt Evloev\u2019s reputation<\/a> among fight fans, his recent fights tell a different story. His bouts against Aljamain Sterling, Arnold Allen, and Diego Lopes were all fun to watch and featured high-level grappling exchanges that hardcore fans can appreciate.<\/p>\n

Still, the question remains:<\/p>\n

Will Evloev finally get his first UFC finish this weekend?<\/p>\n

Oddsmakers don\u2019t seem convinced, with the odds of a finish currently sitting at +380<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To checkout the latest and greatest UFC London: \u201cEvloev vs. Murphy\u201d news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 1-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight Movsar Evloev finally returns to action this weekend (Sat., March 21,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,14855],"class_list":["post-552614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552614","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=552614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}