Featherweights
#12 FW | Lerone Murphy (14-0-1, 6-0-1 UFC) vs. #14 FW | Dan Ige (18-8, 10-7 UFC)UFC 308: Topuria vs. Holloway Saturday at 2 PM ET on ESPN+. Order Now!
Ige achieved legend status in his last fight, which is a funny thing to say coming off a loss. The fight itself, which took place against Diego Lopes in June, was secondary. Instead, it was all about the circumstances of the bout, as Ige wasn’t even on the card when UFC 303 started, only to step in for an ill Brian Ortega and get medically cleared over the course of the event. It personified Ige’s career, as he has been a man willing to step in and take on anyone while also putting together a viable performance, even if he’s clearly settled just outside of the featherweight elite. Ige charged up the ranks in surprising fashion—he wasn’t even offered a contract on the first edition of Dana White’s Contender Series—but hit an understandable wall in 2021 and 2022, when he was continually matched with potential title contenders. Ige is an explosive puncher with some sharp counters, but he doesn’t have much in terms of weapons from range, which Calvin Kattar, in particular, was able to exploit. However, every time Ige takes a step back from some tough losses, he dishes out a reminder of just how good he is, flattening solid veteran opposition like Damon Jackson and Andre Fili with little trouble. The hope was that Ige doing the UFC a solid with the Lopes fight would earn him some sort of big opportunity, but ever the company man, he steps in once again to take on someone the rest of the featherweight division would be better off avoiding, in this case a top British prospect in Murphy.
Murphy’s UFC debut was a thrown-together fight in 2019 that seemingly was intended to hand Zubaira Tukhugov an easy win. Tukhugov was still a well-regarded prospect, and Murphy was a relatively Unknown Fighter who had made his name crushing a particularly weak level of regional competition. As it turns out, Murphy needed all of one round to adjust to the UFC level, overcoming a rough start to win the back half of the bout and earn a draw—the only time “The Miracle” has walked away without a win in his professional career. Murphy has had a slow rise, mostly owing to some extended layoffs, but he has looked excellent each time out. Beyond having plenty of physical tools, Murphy has flashed different skills in each fight, painting the picture of a complete fighter who can go anywhere he needs to in order to win. If there’s one flaw, it’s that Murphy typically needs to warm up in order to find those solutions, something that has made for some narrow wins in some three-round fights where he has nonetheless figured things out by the end. A May victory over Edson Barboza in Murphy’s first main event showed he could make a lot of hay as a five-round fighter, but we are back to 15 minutes here, which makes this a coinflip against Ige. Given that Murphy looks durable enough to eat the Hawaiian’s strikes and carries the frame to take advantage of Ige’s lack of range weapons, the lean is that he can figure things out quickly enough to get over the finish line. The pick is Murphy via decision.
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Topuria vs. Holloway
Chimaev vs. Whittaker
Murphy vs. Ige
Ankalaev vs. Rakic
Magomedov vs. Petrosyan
The Prelims