Movsar Evloev is confident his fight against Lerone Murphy is a UFC featherweight title eliminator.
Evloev (19-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) meets fellow unbeaten featherweight Murphy (17-0-1 MMA, 9-0-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 270 (Paramount+) main event at The O2 in London.
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Jean Silva (17-3 MMA, 6-1 UFC) said he’s flying to London to watch Evloev fight Murphy, and that he’ll meet with UFC brass to sign a contract to fight featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
“I try not to think about those guys, guys like Jean Silva,” Evloev told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “Obviously it’s great that he has a goal, that he’s saying all those things, that he’s working towards his goal, and he’s got a dream. His dream is to fight for the title, but that’s not something I concentrate about because besides speaking out loud or being outspoken, what you need to do is prove and show that you are that next No. 1 contender.
“I consider myself and Lerone somebody, who has done enough to show that this is one of us. One of us is the next contender, and this Saturday will make it period, end of story. The winner of this is definitely the next person to fight for the title because I think both of us have shown there’s going to be no other No. 1 contender. The victor of this fight is the next one to fight the champion.”
Murphy has shown a tendency of getting repeatedly taken down in fights, but despite grappling being Evloev’s strong suit, he sees durability in the Brit.
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“Everybody is posting that he was taken down, but he’s undefeated,” Evloev said. “That means just taking him down – as many times as people take him down, he got up and won the fight afterwards. So, for us, it’s not enough just to take him down per say. What we need to do is make sure we take him down and then work on those takedown for bettering our position in the fight.
“Whether it’s ground and pound or whether it’s taking him down and looking for a finish through submissions or through something of that sort. So, I think what I would also like to show is that this is not the only thing that we prepared. I want to show that we’re an ultimate fighter, a universal fighter. Somebody who’s got more than straight wrestling or grappling. There’s definitely more to us and our game plan than that.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Movsar Evloev reacts to Jean Silva saying he’s next for UFC title shot
