ELMONT, N.Y. – While the oddsmakers had Lauren Murphy as an underdog entering Saturday’s UFC event, Murphy knew she was going to get the job done.
The former women’s flyweight title challenger was determined to get her hand raised at UFC on ABC 3 and show she wasn’t going to be a stepping stone for Miesha Tate.
Tate, a former UFC and Strikeforce champion at bantamweight, was dropping to 125 pounds for the first time in her career. Her highly anticipated flyweight debut came with plenty of talk about a potential title fight against champion Valentina Shevchenko well before making her actual debut in the weight class.
Murphy (16-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) enjoyed the underdog role, but never took it as a reality.
“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,’” Murphy told reporters at the UFC on ABC 3 post-fight news conference. “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 that).’ I have the ability to win fights like that, and I’m right where I belong.’”
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With the win, Murphy bounced back from her loss to champion Shevchenko in their September 2021 title fight. Murphy is 6-1 since 2019, and her only defeat is to the champion. The win over Tate was Murphy’s first victory against a former UFC champion.
Murphy said she’s proud of her performance and thinks at 38, the best is yet to come.
“A lot of stuff that we did in practice happened tonight, and it just feels good to come back and get a win over a former champion,” Murphy said. “Nobody is going to walk over me in this division. … When I’m healthy and focused, I’m a force.”
Lauren Murphy not surprised by upset win over Miesha Tate: ‘Nobody is going to walk over me’