{"id":114114,"date":"2025-09-02T11:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T11:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/114114\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T11:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T11:55:08","slug":"murphy-on-145-title-fight-im-already-seeing-holes-in-volkanovskis-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/114114\/","title":{"rendered":"Murphy on 145 title fight: \u2018I\u2019m already seeing holes in Volkanovski\u2019s game\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lerone Murphy feels like he was being set up to lose to Aaron Pico at UFC 319. After knocking Pico out with a KOTY spinning elbow,<\/a> he\u2019s hoping he\u2019ll be set up for a featherweight title shot.<\/p>\n

Murphy has been quietly amassing a nine-fight win streak in the UFC, and when Movsar Evloev couldn\u2019t fight highly touted Bellator import Aaron Pico in Chicago, the UFC slotted him in for the fight. Did they expect him to go out there and ice their hot new signing? \u201cThe Miracle\u201d doesn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

\u201dThere\u2019s no American champions<\/a> at the minute,\u201d Murphy said on the Believe You Me podcast. \u201cHe\u2019s got a big name. Obviously, he\u2019s got the wrestling pedigree and all that stuff. So I feel like the UFC wanted him to be champion, otherwise they wouldn\u2019t have put him against the No. 1 contender.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for me, I was just looking at this opportunity. This kid\u2019s got hype. They give it to me on short notice, I\u2019ve got nothing to lose here. I just go in there, beat this kid, and I take the No. 1 spot. So I wasn\u2019t really bothered about it, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the win, footage came out of Murphy drilling the spinning elbow that flattened Pico.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I drilled a lot, especially with where he puts his head when he\u2019s shot,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI\u2019m a technician. I watch a lot of tape on guys, so I understand their flaws. And I\u2019m already seeing holes in Volkanovski that I\u2019m gonna exploit.\u201d<\/p>\n

That win seemed to lock up the featherweight title shot debate. Volkanovski even declared<\/a> Murphy was next up for a shot at the 145 pound belt. But as it stands, Murphy hasn\u2019t gotten a call from the UFC confirming anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I needed something like that,\u201d he said. \u201cA win\u2019s a win in my eyes, but another decision win probably wouldn\u2019t have got me a title shot. I needed something big like that \u2026 I did get told before the fight, that this fight had title implications. So that was before the fight. And obviously, I won the fight by KO, so what more can I do now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Miracle\u201d does expect to get a call, and soon. When asked what date the fight could happen, he had a solid idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecember. Volk wants to fight in December,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s gonna be Las Vegas, December. I\u2019m waiting for a call any time now, next few weeks, to get it set in stone and then I\u2019ll start a training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lerone Murphy feels like he was being set up to lose to Aaron Pico at UFC 319. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-114114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}