Lauren Murphy unsure if a win over Andrea Lee at UFC 247 gets her flyweight title shot

HOUSTON — Lauren Murphy knows her upcoming fight is big, but maybe not big enough to get her to her ultimate goal.

The former Invicta FC bantamweight champion takes on fellow contender Andrea Lee on the preliminary card of Saturday’s UFC 247. It’s a prominent contest involving two top-10 fighters who’ve yet to face current champion Valentina Shevchenko – who also competes on the card, defending her flyweight title against Katlyn Chookagian in the co-main event.

Despite not being a next clear contender for the champ, Murphy (11-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) is not too convinced she’ll get the next crack at the belt with a win over Lee (11-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) on Saturday night.

“Hopefully it puts me in the top five,” Murphy told MMA Junkie. “I’m not totally confident that gives me a title shot. That will depend maybe if I have an amazing finish. It really puts me in the top five, so we’ll see what happens. There’s a couple of girls in the top five I’m interested in fighting for sure.”

Regardless, Murphy looks to put on the best performance of her career and hopefully make it two finishes in a row, having stopped Mara Romero Borella in her last bout back in August.

“I’m going to be looking for the finish,” Murphy said. “I like to think I always look for the finish, but I’ve had such a great camp. I’m with a new team now and they just give me a lot of confidence and really good game plans and for me that makes all the difference.

“I’m really looking forward to put on a show and just show everybody what I’m capable of. I really think if I go in there and implement the game plan that’s been given to me, and just fight they way I’ve been training the last few weeks, I think the finish will just present itself.”

The switch in camps is a fairly recent development. Murphy changed teams for her last bout and believes the decision is paying off.

Murphy left the MMA Lab in Phoenix, Ariz. and moved to Houston where she trains with various people in various places. The change has given new life to her fighting career.

“It just felt like the right time,” Murphy said. “When I was in Phoenix, I wanted a change for a long time and my son was in high school out there and I had always promised him that were not going to make him change schools while in high school – he was going to stay in school for four years.

“He had a really great high school experience, so it all just kind of came together that my last fight, when I got booked to fight Mara, he had graduated that same time, so we went to his graduation and then I came out to Texas for the camp against Mara. I just had the time of my life. It was great camp and I had the time of my life. I felt reinvigorated and renewed, fell involve with the sport again, loved the process probably more than I had in the last five or six years and I think that’s so import for us.

“If you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re not going to do well. So for me, to find that again was huge and I had such a good performance against Mara it would be stupid not to chase this.”

Murphy has done work in Main Street May Thai, Gracie Barra, Renzo Gracie, and Grind House Dynamic Sports Training for Saturday’s bout. She’s also reunited with some old teachers as she’s now training under Alex Cisne, who helped her with her Invicta FC run. Murphy has also worked with Derrick Lewis’ coach, Bob Perez.

UFC 247 takes place Saturday at Toyota Center in Houston. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.

For more from Murphy, click on the video above.