Lerone Murphy responds to critics of win over Josh Emmett at UFC Vegas 105: “What do you expect me to do?”

UFC featherweight Lerone Murphy has responded to critics of his recent victory over Josh Emmett.

‘The Miracle’ returned to the octagon in the main event of UFC Vegas 105 over the weekend. Back for the first time since a unanimous decision victory over Dan Ige, the undefeated featherweight met Josh Emmett. For his part, the 40-year-old entered the bout off a brutal first-round knockout victory over Bryce Mitchell in December 2023. For Lerone Murphy, the opportunity to face the former title challenger was a big one.

However, the fight itself left a lot to be desired. While Josh Emmett largely landed the bigger shots, it was Lerone Murphy who landed far more often. After five rounds of lackluster action, it was the British featherweight who emerged with a unanimous decision victory. However, that didn’t stop fans online from slamming Murphy’s tactical fighting style, with many saying the undefeated fighter was “running” on Saturday night.

In the normally quiet UFC Apex, Lerone Murphy was even booed during his post-fight interview. Appearing on The Ariel Helwani Show earlier today, the undefeated featherweight contender discussed his recent performance. There, Murphy largely dismissed critics discussing his win, adding that they wanted him to just stand in the pocket and trade with the hard-hitting Emmett.

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“From my part, I think it’s a clean performance. I stuck to the game plan and did exactly what I needed to do.

It’s like people wanted me to stand in the pocket with Josh Emmett… I couldn’t even text my mum without seeing a video of Josh Emmett KOing somebody. It’s like, what… pic.twitter.com/jyixiUFzon

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 7, 2025

Lerone Murphy responds to critics of recent win over Josh Emmett at UFC Vegas 105

In Lerone Murphy’s eyes, the performance itself was a very clean one. While the British featherweight is aware that many fans aren’t happy with his win over Josh Emmett, he is. In fact, Murphy feels that he arguably won all four rounds, despite some controversy about the decision itself.

“For my part, I think it was a clean performance.” Lerone Murphy stated to Ariel Helwani when asked about his UFC Vegas 105 victory. “I stuck to the gameplan, and did exactly what I needed to do. It’s like people wanted me to stand in the pocket with Josh Emmett and trade. I was watching videos all day, I couldn’t even text my mom without seeing a video of Josh [knocking out] somebody. It’s like, what did you want me to do?”

He continued, “… Yeah, it was clean. I landed some clean strikes, had him hurt a number of times, I think it was nice. Even watching it back, I definitely won four rounds, four rounds to one. Every shot, it didn’t really land anything clean… I defended very well, my defense was A-1.”

What do you make of these comments from the UFC featherweight? Were you impressed by Lerone Murphy’s victory over Josh Emmett?