Lerone Murphy Says UFC Skipped Him & Evloev—Now It’s Do or Die

What were your thoughts?

Obviously, you've probably been asked this a million times when Diego got that shot and seemingly jumped the line over you and Mozar.

I was confused.

I think it hurt a bit.

Um, I was confused.

I thought I did enough against Aaron Pico in the call main event.

So yeah, it did hurt, but, um , I've dusted that off now.

I've got, I've got a new fight, um, I've got a new challenge, and that's just my path.

I just believe that's just my path.

And that's what was just meant to be.

So, um, it is what it is at the end of the day.

What do you make of Diego, where he's obviously a fan favorite and, you know, dangerous in the cage, the results necessarily haven't gone his way.

But why do you think he keeps getting these prime billings from the UFC?

He's fighting at the White House, he was at the sphere, he's, he's had all these big opportunities.

You know what, he, he, he came into the UFC by storm, to be honest, he won't have.

A lot of fights by Finnish, he's a fan favorite, Mexican and Brazilian, so he's got both of them markets there.

So you see why, you see why they do it.

He's got a big fan base and um that's what, that's what sells in it, and that's why he's getting the opportunities.

Let's talk about you and your opponent.

I feel like you guys have a lot in common.

Obviously you'll be fighting each other on Saturday.

I feel like both of you let your fighting kind of speak for itself.

You don't do a lot of trash.

Talking, you both have this calm presence about you, and you've both seemingly been skipped over.

Do you feel a sort of empathy or brotherhood with Mozart, with everything you two have been through?

Yeah, I've got a respect, I respect him and I respect him, and he's stayed true to himself, like myself, and it's like true MMA fighters in it, true martial artists, and it's like, it's tough though, because it's like, bro, this is, this is a fight game, isn't it, we've got to fight, we have to fight and.

We both have the same goals, which is obviously a championship, so we've got to fight for it and, and it's as simple as that.

Yeah.

Mentioned, uh, your beautiful knockout of Aaron back in August.

Do you feel, uh, pressure now with everything that's happened with Diego to go in there and get another finish and have one of those highlight performances?

I would love that to happen.

I would love that to happen.

That's the goal.

That is the dream and that's the goal.

And I think if that happens, it's like I become a star overnight, um, straight away with that.

So obviously that's the goal, but I'm not putting no pressure on myself to go out there and and get a spectacular knockout like that.

I know Mosar's careful.

He's never been beat.

He's not like he's never been knocked out.

So um it's going to be hard to do that to Mofsar, but.

I've got capable, I've I'm capable of doing that.

For sure.

Um, you are fighting in your backyard, you're from Manchester, fighting in London in your backyard.

Do you feel more pressure, uh, fighting at home in, in the UK or is it kind of easier for you where you don't have to necessarily do all that travel and stuff?

Uh, my honest answer is I like fighting away.

I think it, I think it's less, I think it's less pressure.

Um, no one's hounding you for tickets.

You, you get into the hotel, you're probably in the sunshine and you're just chilling.

It's like a holiday almost, but.

Um, don't get me wrong, there's pros and cons to fighting at home and fighting away.

For sure.

Um, a couple of last ones for me.

I was shocked to see, um, against your fight against Aaron, you were actually a slight underdog heading into that fight, which I was shocked when you, and you are a little bit of an underdog against Mozart here.

Do you pay attention to those odds because obviously, betting is so huge in the sport now.

Um, do you ever pay attention to that or have people texting you like, oh, they're disrespecting you here?

It doesn't really matter to me.

That's opinions, isn't it?

It's opinions and you see, you see a lot of people, I don't gamble myself, but you see a lot of people that.

It's hard to bet on MMA, anything can happen, so yeah, it's, it's just who they think will win, due to what's happened in the past in it, but no one, no one knows what the future is and um anything can happen in a fight.

One last one for me, um, current heavyweight champion, fellow countryman Tom Aspel, he's been through a lot.

Um, what do you make of the treatment he's received, it's, do you feel, obviously some of it's been unfair, right?

It's a rough sport, man, it's a rough sport, and we're in the public eye like that and it's like, as soon as you, as soon as people love you and then hate you, that's why you can't, you can't read too deep into it and we have like a fickle fan base and it's it's like people don't understand what we put ourselves through in these fight camps and these fights, so I feel, I feel like, yeah, he's been treated very harshly and um I think that's just going to give him more fire though when he comes back.