What should be a banger at 145 pounds has been booked for the Apex
in February.
The UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN
announced on Wednesday night that “50K” Dan Ige (17-7)
would be returning to the cage in February against the unbeaten
Lerone
Murphy (13-0-1). The two featherweights will toe the line,
possibly with top-10 implications for the victor, inside of the UFC
Apex in Las Vegas. This
Feb. 10 UFC Fight Night showdown has since been confirmed by
both men on their
respective Instagram pages.
Ige will be looking to re-enter the win column after a tough
decision loss to Bryce
Mitchell in September, albeit one that some
observers thought Ige had done enough to win. The defeat put an
end to a two-fight win streak for the Hawaiian, who punched out
Damon
Jackson in January and then outworked Nate
Landwehr in June. Across his last 11 outings, the man known as
“50K” has earned himself a pair of $50,000 bonuses with his
knockouts of Gavin
Tucker and the aforementioned Jackson, but he has gone the
distance in the remaining nine matches.
Still undefeated as a pro, Murphy surges into this contest having
won five straight. The activity level for the Brit has not been the
highest, as he has amassed just five appearances since 2020,
although they all went his way including knockouts of Ricardo
Ramos and Makwan
Amirkhani. The lone blemish on his record came in his
promotional debut against Zubaira
Tukhugov, where he and the Dagestan native threw down en route
to a split draw.
The currently unnamed UFC Fight Night card on Feb. 10 will post up
inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and Jack
Hermansson vs. Joseph
Pyfer will serve as its headliner at 185 pounds. Additional
pairings likely held on the main card include two other
middleweight scraps as Gregory
Rodrigues takes on Brad
Tavares while Rodolfo
Vieira gets his rescheduled matchup against Armen
Petrosyan.