Manchester’s Lerone Murphy remained unbeaten as he outclassed Josh Emmett to win by unanimous decision at UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
In the top-10 showdown, Murphy displayed crisp boxing over 25 minutes and survived Emmett’s heavy wrestling base to emerge victorious.
Murphy (16-0-1 MMA) won 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 on the judges’ scorecards, seeing him equal Russia’s Movsar Evloev for the longest win streak in the featherweight division.
Get Sky Sports or stream no contract on NOWListen to all episodes of the MMA Club podcast”Easy work,” Murphy said, as he now eyes a featherweight title shot later this year. “I want the title but give me anyone in that top five, top three. Lets go.
“I want to keep this train going and I want to get to the championship and stay active. I want two more fights this year.”
Emmett (19-5 MMA) is eighth in the UFC featherweight rankings – two places above Murphy – but the 40-year-old had been absent from the Octagon since December 2023.
In the co-headliner at featherweight, Pat Sabatini (20-5 MMA) needed all but three minutes of ground control time to win a lopsided unanimous decision over Joanderson Brito (17-5-1 MMA), taking it 30-26, 30-26, 30-27 on the judges’ scorecards.
The next two fights saw Brad Tavares and Chang Ho Lee win their respective middleweight and bantamweight bouts against Gerald Meerschaert (37-19 MMA) and Cortavious Romious (9-4 MMA).
Tavares (21-10 MMA) earned a unanimous decision win, while Ho Lee (11-1 MMA) needed under two rounds to secure the mount position and earn a stoppage win.
Ode Osbourne made short work of Luis Gurule with a second-round TKO in a flyweight bout with a series of punches before the fight was eventually called off. In doing so, Osboune (13-8 MMA) handed Gurule (10-1 MMA) his first career loss, while Osboune snapped a three-fight skid.
Middleweight Torrez Finney (11-0 MMA) opened the UFC Vegas 105 main card with a split-decision win over Robert Valentin (10-5 MMA) to earn his first promotional win.
