Preview: UFC 267 Prelims

Featherweights

NR | Lerone Murphy (10-0-1, 2-0-1 UFC) vs. NR | Makwan Amirkhani (16-6, 6-4 UFC)

ODDS: Murphy (-300), Amirkhani (+250)

Amirkhani feels aimless at the moment. When “Mr. Finland” made his UFC debut in 2015, he felt like a future star, particularly after knocking out Andy Ogle with a flying knee in just eight seconds. That was a bit of false advertising—Amirkhani has always been at his best as a wrestler and grappler—but between his talent and his charisma, he was one of the top featherweight prospects to watch. However, over the course of Amirkhani’s career, issues have popped up that he has consistently struggled to answer. Amirkhani’s wrestling game started tiring him out against better competition, and a pivot to focusing on his boxing did not pay much in the way dividends. Amirkhani has improved on the feet, but it has made his game feel a lot less focused. Even throughout all that, Amirkhani’s cardio still proved to be a liability, to the point that he has now taken a slower-paced approach that has sapped a lot of his offensive effectiveness. Amirkhani has still traditionally been able to win up to a certain level thanks to his natural talent, but after dropping a decision in June to late replacement and UFC newcomer Kamuela Kirk, he needs to start figuring things out, now more than ever. Amirkhani’s original opponent, Tristan Connelly, has been replaced by a much stiffer test. England’s Murphy looked like a talent upon his 2019 UFC debut but figured to struggle with the jump up from a particularly weak level of regional competition, especially since the promotion was throwing him right into the deep end against Zubaira Tukhugov. That adjustment period took all of one round, as “The Miracle” survived some early trouble and never looked back, taking the Russian to a draw and impressing in his two wins since. Murphy has not gotten much of a step back in competition, and he has proven to be a sharp and diverse striker with enough grappling to get by. There should be some intrigue here, as wrestling and grappling are still the weakest phases of Murphy’s game, and Amirkhani is a level of submission threat above what the Englishman has faced in the past. Still, Amirkhani is unreliable enough that it is now questionable if he will even look to press those advantages; and even if he does, his gas tank may not allow him to do so for long. The pick is Murphy via decision.

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