{"id":387519,"date":"2026-04-19T17:23:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/387519\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:23:17","slug":"on-the-up-kasib-murdoch-on-teaming-up-with-alexander-volkanovski-and-road-to-ufc-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/387519\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: Kasib Murdoch on teaming up with Alexander Volkanovski and Road To UFC opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI first just came over to train pretty much because of Volk really. I always looked up to Volk. I thought he was probably the best fighter in the world and he was only a weight class apart from me and then a very similar build, so I kind of was stealing his moves before I even came over and trained here anyway,\u201d Murdoch tells the Herald. <\/p>\n

\u201cJoe and Volk both helped me out. That also made the move over pretty easy. Like, they both just helped me out outside of training and fighting as well … I ended up getting a job and making it work over here, so yeah, it\u2019s been awesome.\u201d <\/p>\n

The 24-year-old will compete in the bantamweight division bracket, where he will need to win three fights to earn his place on the UFC roster. Road To UFC is a pathway for athletes from the Asia-Pacific region to earn UFC contracts, with fellow Kiwi Lawrence Lui winning last season\u2019s bantamweight competition. <\/p>\n

Murdoch will begin his quest for a UFC contract in Macau in late May, taking on undefeated Japanese fighter Yunosuke Minami (6-0). <\/p>\n

Murdoch is 7-0 as a professional, and will be a familiar face to some after he appeared in the TVNZ series Relentless<\/a> in 2024. <\/p>\n

Having been based in Australia for the past couple of years, Murdoch said the opportunity to compete on Road To UFC came in line with the goals he had set himself. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt like it was a long time coming to be honest. I\u2019ve been working towards the UFC for a while now and now this opportunity\u2019s just getting me that much closer. I can see the finish line,\u201d Murdoch said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d made a goal before I left New Zealand. I said I wanted to be in the UFC by 2027. It\u2019s kind of just a number I threw out there to be honest … I have a video somewhere on my phone of me saying it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was just a number I was hoping for, then obviously move things kind of moved pretty fast … now, I probably fight three times this year then I\u2019ll be in the UFC to fight next year, so it lines up pretty well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI first just came over to train pretty much because of Volk really. I always looked up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[37879,34855,95,1558,5420,200724,8599,14938,111,139,69,90,6452,21692,1314,213,4744,73819,223,61,4306,810,200725,200726,102,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-387519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-admit","9":"tag-alexander","10":"tag-and","11":"tag-been","12":"tag-hes","13":"tag-kasib","14":"tag-moves","15":"tag-murdoch","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-on","20":"tag-opportunity","21":"tag-proud","22":"tag-road","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-stealing","25":"tag-teaming","26":"tag-the","27":"tag-to","28":"tag-ufc","29":"tag-up","30":"tag-volkanovski","31":"tag-volkanovskis","32":"tag-with","33":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}