Landing one of the most impressive victories of her Octagon tenure to date, one-time flyweight title challenger, Lauren Murphy has labeled herself as a “bad motherf*cker” off the back of a dominant unanimous decision win over former bantamweight best, Miesha Tate.
Murphy, who challenged flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko for undisputed divisional gold last September in the co-headliner of UFC 266, suffered a one-sided fourth round knockout loss.
Returning to the Octagon for the first time since in Saturday’s main card opener at UFC Long Island, Murphy bloodied and battered divisional newcomer, Tate over the course of three rounds to land a unanimous decision win over the Washington veteran.
Slicing Tate with a series of strikes, Murphy appeared to break the former’s nose in the second round, as well as cause severe damage to her left orbital bone, landing a bruising elbow on the break of a clinch exchange.
Reflecting on her impressive win over former undisputed bantamweight best, Tate, Murphy told assembled media how good it felt to mix all her weapons at the UBS Arena event.
“I feel good,” Lauren Murphy said. “I feel good that I was able to take her down, feel good about the elbows I landed. It felt good that she couldn’t take me down. Soon as my butt hit the ground, I was right back up. I wrestled hard. I stayed focused. A lot of the stuff that we did in practice happened tonight, and it just feels good to come back and get a win over a former champion. Nobody’s going to walk over me in this division. And like I said in the interview, when I’m healthy and I’m focused, I’m a force.”
Lauren Murphy welcomes a title-eliminator at 125lbs next
Eyeing a potential title-eliminator against UFC Paris features, Katlyn Chookagian, or Manon Fiorot next, Murphy donned herself as a “bad motherf*cker” in the division.
“There’s been big victories that I’ve had where I’m almost in disbelief like, ‘Oh, I can’t believe I won that. That’s f*cking amazing.’” Lauren Murphy explained. “And right now, I feel like. ‘Yeah, I won that because I’m a badass. I’m a bad motherf*cker. I should’ve (won).’ I had the ability to win fights like that, and I feel like I’m right where I belong.” (Transcribed by BloodyElbow)