Featherweight title shot likely at stake for Evloev, Murphy at UFC London

The next featherweight title challenger could be determined this weekend when a pair of unbeaten championship hopefuls headline a UFC Fight Night event in London, England.

Top-ranked 145-pound contender Movsar Evloev is returning to action for the first time since 2024 and is looking to improve to 20-0 as a professional when he meets Lerone Murphy in Saturday’s scheduled five-rounder.

Both fighters debuted in the UFC in 2019 and for six-plus years have steadily ascended the hierarchy of the division. They now each find themselves on the doorstep of a title shot.

Evloev is a perfect 9-0 in the UFC with notable wins over Diego Lopes, Arnold Allen and Aljamain Sterling, however one thing holding him back from becoming a star has been the fact all his UFC wins have come via decision.

The 32-year-old Russian has been pinned at No. 1 in the contender rankings for a while at this point, but his momentum has also been frequently interrupted by multiple injuries, illnesses and setbacks in recent years and his path to gold has been delayed.

Evloev’s most recent appearance was a UFC 310 win over Sterling, a former bantamweight champion who has found success at featherweight since moving up from 135 pounds. That was almost 16 months ago at this point and Evloev has only fought three times in the past four years overall.

Could cage rust be a factor for Evloev against Murphy considering it’s the longest layoff Evloev has ever had between fights?

Murphy is 17-0-1 as a pro and made a strong case for the next title shot when he gave longtime Bellator MMA star Aaron Pico a rude welcome to the UFC last summer when he flattened Pico with a brutal first-round spinning elbow knockout.

The 34-year-old English talent also holds wins over Josh Emmett, Edson Barboza and Dan Ige during his UFC tenure. Murphy has fought twice per year in each of the past three years and his recent wins over Emmett and Pico resulted in a surge up the rankings. Murphy was the No. 10-ranked contender at this time last year but now sits at No. 3 behind only his upcoming opponent and two-time title challenger Diego Lopes, who’s currently No. 2.

The featherweight division has undergone a reset in the past couple years with longtime titleholder Alexander Volkanovski losing and regaining the belt.

Ilia Topuria knocked out Volkanovski early in 2024 to become champion. Topuria then defended the title eight months later with a knockout of Max Holloway before deciding to vacate the title and move up to the lightweight division, which left the 145-pound weight class in a state of flux.

The UFC decided to book Volkanovski into a vacant title bout and paired him with Lopes at UFC 314 in April of last year. Volkanovski showed he had plenty left in the tank with a vintage performance. 

Before the UFC decided to ultimately book Volkanovski into a puzzling rematch with Lopes at UFC 325 earlier this year, the respected Australian champ had gone on record saying he had expected to face either Evloev or Murphy in the first defence of his second stint as champion.

Volkanovski was just as dominant against Lopes in their sequel and he reiterated in a February video blog following his UFC 325 victory that he is willing to fight anybody the UFC asks him to fight, adding he thinks Brazilian star Jean Silva is a dark-horse contender for the next shot even though Evloev and Murphy are ahead of him in the rankings. 

“If the UFC obviously were to push (a Silva fight) for me, everyone knows me, I’ll fight anyone, but I don’t think that’s very likely to happen,” Volkanovski said. “I don’t think he’s in a position to fight for the title, especially when you’ve got Lerone Murphy and Movsar Evloev fighting very, very soon. I think that’s very clear.”

The UFC has not explicitly stated or confirmed the winner of Evloev vs. Murphy will be guaranteed the next shot at Volkanovski but that is the presumption heading into the weekend. If either UFC London headliner picks up a dominant and impressive victory, it would be hard to deny either man at this point.

Stylistically speaking, this matchup should unfold as a competitive, high-level test of skills where each fighter will hold advantages in certain areas. On paper, Evloev should have an edge in the grappling department with Murphy regarded as the more dangerous striker.

If Evloev can dictate where the action takes place – like he does in nearly all his fights – then it could turn into a frustrating night for Murphy, who has only a 51-per-cent takedown defence rate. Evloev lands 4.67 takedowns per 15 minutes of fight time.

Murphy has better striking metrics across the board and is coming off that highlight KO of Pico but he is a two-to-one betting underdog heading into his matchup with Evloev. He should boast a home-cage advantage, though, once the cage door closes.

The Manchester native has fought in England only once since joining the UFC. It was a decision win over Josh Culibao on a 2023 Fight Night card at London’s O2 Arena, the same venue at which Saturday’s event takes place.

Saturday’s card is the 17th UFC event in London in the organization’s history and marks the fourth consecutive March during which the UFC has held an event in the city.

Since 2020, there have been six total UFC events held at The O2 in London, with an English fighter featured in the main event each time — former welterweight champion Leon Edwards has headlined three of them and current heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall headlined the other three. The UFC’s lone trip to England in 2025 was a Fight Night card headlined by American Sean Brady submitting Edwards.

Below is the projected bout order for UFC London (subject to change):

MAIN CARD

-- Movsar Evloev vs. Lerone Murphy (five rounds)

-- Luke Riley vs. Michael Aswell

-- Michael Page vs. Sam Patterson

-- Iwo Baraniewski vs. Austen Lane

-- Roman Dolidze vs. Christian Leroy Duncan

-- Kurtis Campbell vs. Danny Silva

PRELIMINARY CARD

-- Mason Jones vs. Axel Sola

-- Nathaniel Wood vs. Losene Keita

-- Mario Pinto vs. Felipe Franco

-- Mantas Kondratavicius vs. Antonio Trocoli

-- Louie Sutherland vs. Brando Pericic

-- Shaqueme “Shem” Rock vs. Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady

-- Shanelle Dyer vs. Ravena Oliveira

-- Melissa Mullins vs. Luana Carolina