Lerone Murphy extended his unbeaten streak in front of a home crowd at the O2 Arena in London- coasting past Joshua Culibao at UFC Fight Night.
It is now Murphy’s fifth straight win in the MMA’s top-flight organisation, with conversations starting to circulate that the Mancunian is set for a featherweight ranking in the next few months.
This chatter may just be confined to the UK, where Murphy is highly regarded for his talents, but advertising his game to the world stage seems to be the next priority.
“It’s just I’m not a big talker, that’s it”, Murphy replied when asked during the UFC Fight Night post-fight press conference about gaining recognition worldwide.
“If you’re a big talker out here you get noticed so I’m just trying to do that with my fighting skills. I’ve had six fights at the top level and I’m still undefeated and I’m heading to the top.”
Murphy has spoken in the past about cementing his credibility with an official ranking in the featherweight division, with several gatekeepers a potential matchup.
The Brit was prompted with the prospect of fighting Edson Barboza (14) in Brazil later this year and said he’d be keen to scrap it out with any of the current top 15.
“Any of those guys would be a top fight.”
“I’m here to test myself against the best in the world and I’m not running from anyone.”
Murphy is already a distinguished fighter at home in Britain but a marquee matchup against someone like Barboza or Dan Ige (13) would be the perfect test to determine whether or not he is ready to mix it with the big dogs.
