ABU DHABI – Lerone Murphy resorted to his grappling to remain unbeaten against Dan Ige at UFC 308.
Murphy (15-0-1 MMA, 7-0-1 UFC) was cracked early before rallying to defeat Ige (18-9 MMA, 10-8 UFC) by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). The featherweight bout was part of the UFC 308 main card at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Ige stalked Murphy to start, attacking him to the body and landing a nice combination. A minute and a half into the round, Ige slammed Murphy down for the takedown. Murphy managed to escape by giving up his back and turning out of the body lock. A cut opened up on Ige’s face. Murphy landed a nice spinning back kick to the body. Ige then dropped Murphy with a big counter left and swarmed him. Murphy covered up and fired back with a counter of his own, before taking Ige down at the end of the round.
Ige continued to press forward in Round 2. Murphy appeared to recover as he landed a body kick, followed by a straight right. The pace slowed down significantly until Ige decided to shoot for a takedown. Murphy reversed him and started working for his own takedown. Neither man was successful, as they returned to the center of the octagon. With less than a minute remaining, Murphy took Ige down and mounted him. He transitioned to his back then locked in a triangle choke to end the round.
With the score seemingly tied at one round a piece, Murphy immediately tried to take the fight back to the ground. Ige defended well, but ate a knee on the break. Murphy landed a head kick, followed by another takedown attempt. Ige reversed him and wound up in top position. Murphy tried to use a leg lock attempt to escape, but was denied. Ige tried to take Murphy’s back, but Murphy was able to work his way back up. Murphy then landed his own takedown, and worked for a front head lock. The pair exchanged in the pocket in the final 15 seconds as the clock winded down.
Following his win, Murphy called out former interim featherweight title challenger Josh Emmett.
https://twitter.com/UFCEurope/status/1850254284769620298
Emmett responded, and appeared seemingly unimpressed.
https://twitter.com/JoshEmmettUFC/status/1850254065596535111
Up-to-the-minute UFC 308 results include:
- Lerone Murphy def. Dan Ige via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Shara Magomedov def. Armen Petrosyan via TKO (spinning back fist) – Round 2, 4:52
- Ibo Aslan def. Rafael Cerqueira via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 0:51
- Geoff Neal def. Rafael dos Anjos via TKO (knee injury) – Round 1, 1:40
- Mateusz Rebecki def. Myktybek Orolbai via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Abus Magomedov def. Brunno Ferreira via submission (arm triangle) – Round 3, 3:14
- Kennedy Nzechukwu def. Chris Barnett via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:27
- Farid Basharat def. Victor Hugo via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Ismail Naurdiev def. Bruno Silva via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Rinat Fakhretdinov def. Carlos Leal via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.
