Lerone Murphy confirms he tore hip flexor during loss to Movsar Evloev

Lerone Murphy just suffered the first loss of his professional mixed martial arts career, and he’ll have to heal up before stepping back into the cage.

The No. 3-ranked UFC featherweight contender confirmed on social media following a loss to Movsar Evloev over the weekend that he tore his left hip flexor in the fourth round of the five-round Fight Night main event that took place in London, England.

Murphy was on the wrong side of a majority decision during which Evloev was deducted one point for repeatedly low blow fouls. Two of the three judges scored the bout four rounds to one for Evloev, so even with the deduction, it was enough for the win.

The first three rounds of the fight were competitive before Evloev took over with wrestling late, but, hypothetically, had Murphy even won two out of the five rounds on two of the three judges’ scorecards, he could've escaped with a draw instead of his first loss.

“I loved every second of the fight,” Murphy wrote in a separate social media post reacting to the result. “I thought I'd done enough to take the first three rounds, although it was close. A draw at the very least with the point deduction, but on to the next. Movsar fought a smart fight and didn’t give me many openings. I could have created a bit more chaos. I hope we can run this back at some point. I'LL BE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE.”

Murphy could be heard telling his corner between Round 4 and Round 5 that “my hip popped.”

The 34-year-old from Manchester fell to 17-1-1 in MMA and 9-1-1 in the UFC with the loss.

It’s unclear how long the injury will keep Murphy sidelined, but the fighter wrote, “Back in no time,” as a caption over a video of him getting some treatment done to his left hip.

Evloev, meanwhile, improved to 20-0 and is expected to get the next title shot against current champion Alexander Volkanovski.