Manchester’s Lerone Murphy remained unbeaten as he outclassed Josh Emmett to win by unanimous decision at UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
In the top-10 showdown, Murphy displayed crisp boxing over 25 minutes and survived Emmett’s heavy wrestling base to emerge victorious.
Murphy (16-0-1 MMA) won 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 on the judges’ scorecards, seeing him equal Russia’s Movsar Evloev for the longest win streak in the featherweight division.
“Easy work,” Murphy said, as he now eyes a featherweight title shot later this year. “I want the title but give me anyone in that top five, top three. Lets go.
“I want to keep this train going and I want to get to the championship and stay active. I want two more fights this year.”
Emmett (19-5 MMA) is eighth in the UFC featherweight rankings – two places above Murphy – but the 40-year-old had been absent from the Octagon since December 2023.
In the co-headliner at featherweight, Pat Sabatini (20-5 MMA) needed all but three minutes of ground control time to win a lopsided unanimous decision over Joanderson Brito (17-5-1 MMA), taking it 30-26, 30-26, 30-27 on the judges’ scorecards.
The next two fights saw Brad Tavares and Chang Ho Lee win their respective middleweight and bantamweight bouts against Gerald Meerschaert (37-19 MMA) and Cortavious Romious (9-4 MMA).
Tavares (21-10 MMA) earned a unanimous decision win, while Ho Lee (11-1 MMA) needed under two rounds to secure the mount position and earn a stoppage win.
Ode Osbourne made short work of Luis Gurule with a second-round TKO in a flyweight bout with a series of punches before the fight was eventually called off. In doing so, Osboune (13-8 MMA) handed Gurule (10-1 MMA) his first career loss, while Osboune snapped a three-fight skid.
Middleweight Torrez Finney (11-0 MMA) opened the UFC Vegas 105 main card with a split-decision win over Robert Valentin (10-5 MMA) to earn his first promotional win.
