- Fast-rising
UFC starLerone Murphy returns to the Octagon on Wednesday for a featherweight match onFight Island . - The undefeated Brit has a backstory that is so surreal even Hollywood may struggle to do it justice.
- When he was 21 he survived a drive-by shooting in broad daylight, spat bullets to the floor, and was rushed to hospital.
- Though it was a "big trauma" he regards it as a positive as the journey he's been on since has led him to a much better place — as an athlete looking to break into the UFC rankings, and one day fight for the title.
FIGHT ISLAND - All too often, the theater of combat
Sometimes real life produces drama more gripping than ones portrayed on the big screen - and Lerone Murphy, a fast-rising UFC star who survived a drive-by shooting when he was 21, spat bullets to the floor, and was then rushed to a hospital, is a living example.
Murphy told reporters at a media day Insider attended that the feeling of getting shot is "exactly how you imagine" and compared it to a knockout punch that you can't see until it's too late before dropping to the floor.
"It's a big trauma," Murphy then told Insider, ahead of his featherweight match Wednesday against Douglas Silva de Andrade - the second of the UFC's three events inside the newly-built Etihad Arena on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
"Them things you don't forget," he said.
Murphy is a stylish striker with a flawless pro MMA record of nine wins (six knockouts and three decisions) and one draw.
He has big aspirations in the UFC as he wants to fight four times in 2021, finish the year as a ranked 145-pounder, and then chase the featherweight title.
His nickname is "The Miracle" - a nod to what happened during that day eight years ago when a gunman opened fire on Murphy during broad daylight outside a barbershop in the Fallowfield region of Manchester.
"It happens a lot in Manchester, especially the area it happened. I've had close friends, family members, who have been shot and killed," said Murphy.
"It's one of them things that happens a lot in that area … wrong place, wrong time."
He spent a week in intensive care at a hospital, had four teeth replaced, and shrapnel from a bullet remains in his tongue to this day - although it doesn't alert security when he goes through airport screening, he said.
Almost a decade has passed since the drive-by, and though he does not forget the shooting, waking up in the hospital, or recovering at home, he uses the incident as positive as it shows how far he has come since then.
He got into MMA, and the combative sports gave him the discipline to change the direction his life was taking.
"I try to keep it as a positive in my life, spur me on, do better, rather than have it hanging like a negative. I try not to look back, but look forward," Murphy said.
Getting his first win in the UFC during the COVID-era in sport was a surreal moment
Insider was Octagonside for Murphy's most recent match in which he finished Ricardo Ramos with nasty ground-and-pound before celebrating in front of his UFC boss Dana White, who seemed shocked at the time last summer.
Insider described Murphy's win over Ramos as an annihilation and marveled at the efficiency of his attacking output.
"I'm a striker, and I throw with exciting technique, but I feel I've not yet got to show the best of me, yet," he said, describing his style. "But hopefully, Wednesday, I'll show my best side."
Murphy had been given a baptism of fire in his UFC debut, managing to score a draw against Zubaira Tukhugov.
The next year, he got his first win. But it did not sink in until he was back at the fighter hotel and grabbed his phone so he could call his mother. She cannot watch her son fight and cannot sleep until she hears his voice.
"She's nervous, scared, and so I call to [put her at ease]," Murphy told us. "Even if it's 5 a.m., she can't sleep until I phone her. She's super proud of where I am in life now, win, lose, or draw."
Besides fighting to make his mom proud, Murphy wants to behave in a way that inspires his young son. Fatherhood, too, allows him to cling to something.
"My family are the people I do this for," he said.
"I'm not just doing it for myself. I'm training and working for him now. I want him to be proud, thinking, 'This is my dad.'
"I want him to work hard for him, so he never has to go down the road I went down. It's a big task.
"I'll teach him how to fight because martial arts is a good discipline that has taught me a lot, but I wouldn't want him to [compete]."
Before Murphy found MMA, he was an ambitious soccer player. Out of the two sports, he'd want his son to pick the latter.
"He should get into football. Go and earn that big money … for Manchester United. He has to be a red!"
A war could break out Wednesday
Victory over Douglas Silva de Andrade can act as a springboard to further success, as Murphy wants to increasingly step-up the opposition level and climb the featherweight rankings.
His bout Wednesday could be a fan-friendly one, with two strikers promising a stand-up war. "I feel it's going to go that way," he told Insider.
"A lot of his fights on UFC Fight Pass are from years ago, so it's hard to get a gauge of where he's at now, but I feel I know his game - he's powerful, and I know it's a good fight.
"In the perfect world, I want four fights this year, get into the top-15 at the back end of the year.
"Obviously, my goal has to be title, otherwise what are we doing this for? Get the title, and create a better life for me and my family."
If his mother can't watch his fights, would she at least tune in for a title shot?
Murphy laughs at the thought.
"No! She can't watch any fights and then watch that one fight! She'd feel like a bad luck charm or something."
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