Lerone Murphy dominates Edson Barboza in UFC Vegas 92 main event
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, May 18, 2024, for UFC Vegas 92, going down live from the UFC Apex in Enterprise, Nevada.
Headlining the event was a featherweight bout between no. 12 ranked Edson Barboza (24-12) and Lerone Murphy (14-0-1), who aimed to jump into the top 15 of the rankings with a sixth-straight win tonight.
Barboza, like Murphy, went into his first fight of the year in tonight’s main event after a 2-0 year in 2023 with wins over Billy Quarantillo (KO) and Sodiq Yusuff (UD) that snapped his recent two-fight losing skid. The Brazilian contender was a top 5 lightweight for years at one point, having joined the UFC in 2010 as the ROC lightweight champion.
Murphy on the other hand had gone 5-0-1 across six promotional appearances to date coming in, joining the promotion in 2019 following his claim of the FCC featherweight championship, and had since picked up wins over Ricardo Ramos (TKO), Douglas Silva de Andrade (UD), Makwan Amirkhani (KO), Gabriel Santos (SD), and Joshua Culibao (UD), also battling to a draw against Zuba Tukhugov in his UFC debut.
Continue reading to see how our UFC Vegas 92 main event went down:
Official Result: Lerone Murphy def. Edson Barboza via unanimous decision (49-46, 50-45, 50-45)
Barboza took the center once the bout began, looking to get his jab established as Murphy did the same, only himself on the backfoot. Barboza landed a heavy leg kick a couple minutes in and followed it up with a few more throughout the opening round.
Murphy capitalized late in round one as Barboza went for knee and ended up on his back, Murphy assuming top position though he ate a nasty upkick in the final seconds.
Murphy began to control the center in the second, a round he landed several good right hands in. He also secured a takedown, though Barboza was back to his feet quickly. Barboza appeared to be fading as the round went on, Murphy landing combinations at will.
Murphy continued to pressure Barboza heavily through round three, effectively boxing his way into range throughout it, and also securing another momentary takedown. His punches at this point were starting to have more of an effect on the Brazilian the more of them he landed.
Barboza had a better round four, bloodying Murphy’s nose up with his jabs, and also landing an absolutely vicious spinning back kick in the final two minutes of it. He was however out-worked as a whole in this one as well.
Murphy kept composed and continued to out-work Barboza throughout the fifth and final round, though he did eat another nasty spinning back kick that immediately forced a takedown shot out of him. He ended up securing it and wore on Barboza through the remaining 90 or so seconds of the fight.
Lerone Murphy remains undefeated as a professional, he remains undefeated in the UFC, and he’s finally entering the UFC’s featherweight rankings. Many believed he should’ve already been there, and this dominant win proves that right.
The man is nearly 33 years of age, it’s time he gets a top 10 opponent.
Who would you like to see Lerone Murphy face next?
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