Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Alexander Volkanovski got his wish as Movsar Evloev defeated Lerone Murphy, likely punching his ticket to a title fight against Australia’s UFC featherweight champion.
Known for his wrestling ability, Russian Evloev earned a majority-decision victory against his English opponent in the main bout at UFC Fight Night in London’s O2 Arena on Saturday.
With both men putting undefeated records on the line, 32-year-old Evloev looks set to next face “The Great” Volkanovski for the belt, after an intriguing clash of styles in what was widely viewed as a title eliminator.
After the fight, Volkanovski made it clear he would welcome the potential match-up.
“I want the guy who deserves it most and it’s pretty clear that’s Movsar,” 37-year-old Volkanovski said.
“I’m not usually one to fight for legacy, but that’s a fight I feel I need that.
“Undefeated, 20-and-zero … he’s taken out all the top guys. All of them. It’s quite clear.”
Volkanovski also saw it as an opportunity to dent a trend towards grappling stars in the sport.
“We’re also in this new era where we’ve got these heavy wrestlers and grapplers who are taking over. They’re quite dominant,” he said.
“We’ve got a few champions who wrestle, grapple, and not many people know how to deal with that.
“But look at my fight with Islam (Makhachev). Everyone thought I was going to be controlled, but look at how the fight turned out to be.
“So that excites me.
“I won’t be held down. We know that. I’ll make it an exciting fight. I’ll be in your face, I’ll land hands. And there ain’t going to be nothing that someone who wants to wrestle can do about that.”
Murphy evaded the fearsome grappling attack of his Russian opponent for the first two rounds of the five-round bout, using stiff right hands to keep him at bay.
Evloev finally managed to take the fight to the mat early in the third round, but Murphy was quickly back to his feet, uncorking a spinning back kick of his own shortly afterwards.
The Russian’s momentum was derailed somewhat when he landed a second kick to Murphy’s groin early in the fourth round, and referee Marc Goddard deducted a point from Evloev for the foul.
Knowing that the deduction could be decisive if the fight went to the judges’ scorecards, Evloev turned up his energy-sapping grappling attack in the fifth and final frame as he chased a finish, but again Murphy was able to get back to his feet with relative ease.
Despite not really threatening to submit his opponent on the ground, it proved to be enough for Evloev, with two judges scoring the fight 48-46 in his favour and the third scoring it a 47-47 draw after the point deduction was taken into account.
– with Reuters
