Lerone Murphy may not have been a fan favorite in the UFC Vegas 105 main event, but he did enough to win Josh Emmett and remained undefeated in his career.
It was Murphy’s technical sound performance. He beat Emmett after the round, annoying the one-off interim title challenger. Murphy consistently missed his feet on a series of nasty kicks before popping Emmett with a hard jab that paid dividends all night.
When that was finished, the judges won the fight 48-47, 48-47, 49-46, with Murphy nodging by a unanimous decision to move to 16-0-1 overall with victory.
As soon as the decision was announced, a big chorus of boos on Murphy, who looks, from the crowd of very pro-Emmett attending UFC Apex, rained.
“Listen, it’s okay. 16-0, what? A simple job,” Murphy said shouting to the audience. “I have to fight my game. He has one punch knockout power. I couldn’t make any mistakes. Intelligent performance. I sounded defensively. I dropped him with my left hand. It was a quality performance.”
As Emmett searched for an opening to unload the bomb, Murphy continued to sway and chose his shot. It was mainly derived from his jabs and some solid calf kicks. The head collision actually led to a massive amount of bleeding that caused Emmett’s face down, but it appears that it didn’t really affect him as he continued to stalk Murphy in the cage with constant attacks.
He usually likes to strike, but Emmett actually switches things up with a huge takedown after lifting Murphy in the air and literally throwing it on the canvas. Unfortunately for Emmett, the highlight reel takedown was nothing more than that with Murphy stepping in again.
As for Murphy, it was clear that he kept chipping in that lead leg and his movements were beginning to irritate Emmett, who had struggled to cut off the cage. Britt went low and fired his head, continuing to guess Emmett.
The speed and diversity of the strike from Murphy was nearly impossible to predict as he began to settle into rhythm in the fight moving into the fourth round. Murphy was also beginning to find the nasty body kick opening echoing from Emmett’s midsection.
Realizing he was lying on the scorecard, Emmett began headhunting with a punch, trying to deliver a knockout blow. Again and again, Murphy finds a way to block or avoid the biggest power shot coming from Emmett, who had to feel the fight to escape from him.
With the final five minutes ticking in one go, Emmett desperately tries to find a home for the missile with his right hand for that heat, but for him it was almost the same story as the whole battle. In return, Murphy continued kicking his leg, stabbing Emmett with a jab and playing the counter fighter all the way to the final horn.
It wasn’t an epic show from Murphy, who always finds a way to win, but hasn’t gotten a finish since knocking out McWan Amilkani in 2021. Still, Murphy continues his slowly and steadily climbing, adding an emmet to his lesmee with his victory on Saturday night.
“Obviously I want a title, but I’ll give you someone in the top five or top three,” Murphy said of what he wants next. “I want to continue this train. I want to stay active. I’ll have two more fights this year.”