Ranked featherweights Lerone Murphy and Dan Ige fought to a close split decision in a bout that surely would have won ‘Fight of the Night’ if a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate had not taken place on the prelims.
Mateusz Rebecki and Myktybek Orolbai savaged each other with endless offense, but Ige vs Murphy was more tactical and technical as a fight in its beautiful violence.
The fight had constant ebbs and flows, Ige scored a knockdown in the first but got taken down and outstruck the next round. The final round saw Ige get half a round of control time (including taking back mount) before Murphy escaped and did more damage in the final minutes, sealing his victory.
Now the veteran Dan Ige finds himself in a familiar position, having lost to a contender and needing to fight an unranked fighter to stay in the rankings, while Murphy continues his rapid ascent.
The perfect fight for the winner, #11 featherweight contender Lerone Murphy, is Josh Emmett. If Ige was able to drop the Brit, Emmett’s infamous power can do far more damage if he lands clean.
Murphy will have to show a cleaner performance to beat the #8 contender and keep rising.
On the other hand, Ige can simply return to a bout that was scheduled for him earlier this year. Before he stepped up on just four hours to save the UFC 303 co-main event by fighting Diego Lopes, Ige was scheduled to face Chepe Mariscal.
The unranked Elevation Fight Team athlete is 4-0 in the UFC, including a win over impressive fighters like Morgan Charriere and Damon Jackson. Nobody thought Chepe would do this well, he was the underdog in his first three UFC outings, but now he finds himself on the precipice of being ranked.
Ige had constantly had a pattern where he loses a fight to any fighter ranked above him, and then easily beats the challengers who try to take his spot and boot him from the rankings. Mariscal brings a different style than he has seen before, so the fight will be interesting to see if history repeats.
With fighters this talented sitting outside the top ten, it is easy to see why the featherweight division is one of the best in the UFC.
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