{"id":557172,"date":"2026-03-22T14:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/557172\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:36:11","slug":"evloev-upsets-murphy-sets-up-featherweight-title-shot-against-volkanovski-mixed-martial-arts-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/557172\/","title":{"rendered":"Evloev upsets Murphy, sets up featherweight title shot against Volkanovski | Mixed Martial Arts News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Movsar Evloev rallies after a point deduction against the unbeaten Lerone Murphy to win the contest in London.<\/p>\n

Published On 22 Mar 202622 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Movsar Evloev \u200covercame a point deduction for a foul to edge a majority \u2060decision win over \u2060Lerone Murphy at Saturday\u2019s UFC Fight Night 270 at the O2 Arena, likely punching his ticket to a title fight against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski \u2060in his next bout.<\/p>\n

With the two fighters putting their undefeated records on the line to decide who will face the 37-year-old Australian Volkanovski for the belt, \u2060the bout turned into an intriguing clash of styles.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Evloev, who is known for his wrestling, tried to showcase his striking, while Murphy displayed some superb defensive work on the ground.<\/p>\n

Murphy evaded the fearsome grappling attack of his Russian opponent for the \u200cfirst two rounds of the five-round bout, using a selection of stiff right hands to keep him at bay. Evloev took the chance to exhibit some of the dangerous spinning strikes he has added to his repertoire since his last fight in December 2024.<\/p>\n

Evloev finally managed to take the fight to the mat early in the third round, but Murphy was quickly \u2060back to his feet, uncorking a spinning back kick of \u2060his own shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

However, it was his opponent who finished the frame strongest with a big overhand right, followed up by a flurry of strikes.<\/p>\n

\"MovsarEvloev, right, lands a punch against Murphy during the UFC Fight Night 270 main event at the O2 Arena [Peter van den Berg\/Imagn Images via Reuters]<\/p>\n

His momentum was derailed somewhat when he landed \u2060a second kick to Murphy\u2019s groin early in the fourth round, and referee Marc Goddard deducted a point from \u2060Evloev for the foul.<\/p>\n

Knowing that the deduction could be \u2060decisive if the fight went to the judges\u2019 scorecards, Evloev turned up his energy-sapping grappling attack in the fifth and final frame as he chased a finish, but again Murphy was able to \u200cget back to his feet with relative ease.<\/p>\n

Despite not really threatening to submit his opponent on the ground, it proved to be enough for the 32-year-old Evloev, \u200cwith \u200ctwo of the judges scoring the fight 48-46 in his favour and the third scoring it a draw 47-47 after the point deduction was taken into account.<\/p>\n

\"LeroneMurphy reacts following his first career defeat in UFC [Jasper Wax\/Getty Images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Movsar Evloev rallies after a point deduction against the unbeaten Lerone Murphy to win the contest in London.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2057,43,10280,44,588,41,39,42,40,3586],"class_list":{"0":"post-557172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-mixed-martial-arts","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557172","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=557172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}