Movsar Evloev wants his title shot after scoring a majority decision win in the UFC London main event.
The undefeated Russian didn’t have an easy night at the office, largely focusing on his striking through the first half of his fight with Lerone Murphy. But once he started implementing his wrestling, Evloev started mounting some damage and racking up control time as he did enough to get the job done on the scorecards.
The final tally read 48-46, 48-46 and 47-47 — including a fourth round point deduction on Evloev — as he got the majority decision victory.
“I told you, I’m a better striker than him … joke,” Evloev said with a laugh after his latest win. “With Mike my head coach, we prepared for level change attacks … I think my punches are hard, I can hurt an opponent even if I didn’t finish him. But look at his face, he’s damage. I showed, I don’t necessarily have to use my wrestling to get wins.
“[Alexander Volkanovski] mentioned my name a lot of times, I’m accepting his challenge. let’s f*cking fight. UFC, there is no excuses to not let me fight for the title.”
While obviously disappointed with the result, Murphy offered no excuses and even he championed Evloev getting the title shot next.
“Sorry, London fans,” Murphy said. “Sorry to let you down tonight. I give all I could give tonight and obviously it wasn’t enough. Make sure Movsar Evloev gets a title shot. That man deserves it. He’s next in line.
“My hip popped in the third. No excuses. I’ll be back. I’ve got work to do, I’ll back.”
As the fight started, Evloev seemed willing to stand and strike with Murphy early as the featherweights were both looking to make a statement in the main event. Murphy connected with a nice body shot and Evloev fired back with a nasty front kick to the ribs that landed clean.
Through the first five minutes, Evloev didn’t shoot for a single takedown but between rounds his coaches were imploring him to set up his grappling, which is clearly his easiest path to victory. On the restart, Murphy was still peppering away from the outside, throwing kicks and then circling away to avoid Evloev’s wrestling.
A big left hand landed for Murphy but Evloev fired back with one of his own that connected clean on the chin. Evloev still wasn’t setting up any takedowns and that allowed Murphy to largely control the action from the outside, putting in good work with his combinations on the feet.
Finally in the third round, Evloev scored his first takedown but Murphy was quick to scramble and work back to his feet. Murphy then uncorked a well-timed spinning heel kick, although Evloev did a good job defending to avoid any serious damage.
Murphy’s confidence was surging in every exchange, stabbing away at Evloev with long, rangy strikes and the moving away before getting hit himself.
Evloev tried opening up more on the feet and that resulted in a second kick going low with Murphy clearly feeling it after the referee paused the action. Marc Goddard reprimanded Evloev for the foul and ultimately decided to take a point away for the rules infraction.
That left Evloev in dire need to really up his offensive output and that led to a takedown as he really started trying to punish Murphy in every facet of the fight.
Another takedown opened the fifth and final round as Evloev really started mounting some damage and repeatedly dragging Murphy to the canvas. When Murphy finally broke free to get back to his feet, he clubbed Evloev with a stiff punch that definitely got his attention.
An ill-advised spinning back elbow from Murphy resulted in another takedown from Evloev as he continued hammering away trying to get the finish before time ran out.
There were several close rounds but Evloev’s aggression and constantly pushing the pace obviously loomed large with the judges. In the end, Evloev got the nod, remains undefeated and now awaits word from the UFC to find out if he’s getting the next crack at featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
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