Lauren Murphy is far from finished with the UFC women’s flyweight elite. Murphy defeated former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate in a three-round decision at UFC Fight Night in Long Island on Saturday.
Murphy and Tate fought for 15 hard minutes to open Saturday’s main card. Their outputs on the feet were relatively close and their respective wrestling skills negated each other. It was Murphy’s ability to damage Tate that separated them on the scorecards. Murphy’s jab had Tate’s nose dripping with blood in Round 1 and gushing in Round 2. Murphy also appeared to break Tate’s orbital bone as “Cupcake” dealt with bad swelling and a cut under her right eye.
“It’ll take more than one little ass kicking to keep me away from the championship,” Murphy told UFC commentator Daniel Cormier during a post-fight interview. “It went better than we practiced. We worked so, so hard for this and I changed so much about my camp and the people around me, but mostly about the way that I think and how I think about myself. Once that changed, so did everything around me.”
Murphy also challenged the winner of Jessica Andrade vs. Manon Fiorot taking place on Sept. 3 in Paris, France.
Murphy improved to 16-5 and bounced back from a loss to UFC women’s flyweight champion and pound-for-pound queen Valentina Shevchenko. She is 6-1 dating back to 2019. Tate dropped to 19-9 and is 1-2 overall since returning from a five-year-long retirement.
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