Lerone
Murphy is not confident about earning the next featherweight
title shot even if he beats Movsar
Evloev.
Murphy (17-0) and Evloev (19-0) are scheduled to headline
UFC London on March 21 at the O2 Arena. Either Murphy or Evloev
were originally expected to challenge Alexander
Volkanovski for the title in his last fight. However,
Volkanovski successfully defended the title in a rematch against
Diego
Lopes at
UFC 325 last weekend in Australia. Considering Volkanovski
acknowledges Murphy and Evloev as the most deserving contenders,
the UFC London headliner in March should be guaranteed title
eliminator.
Advertisement
‘Nothing’s Concrete’
However, Murphy doesn’t think a title shot is neccessarily
guaranteed with a potential win over Evloev.
“At this point, words are wind, innit?” Murphy said on „The Ariel Helwani Show.” “It’s like, the
division’s forever changing and it’s a performance-based company,
someone’s gotta go out there and put on a good fight. Nothing’s
concrete, that’s what I’m trying to say. But I hope so.”
Evloev has long been a deserving contender with wins over the likes
of Lopes, Aljamain
Sterling, and Arnold
Allen. Meanwhile, Murphy established himself as a contender by
spoiling the UFC debut of former Bellator star Aaron Pico
with a spinning back elbow last August. Volkanovski himself had
admitted that Murphy might have jumped ahead of Evloev in the title
queue with his win over Pico.