Lerone Murphy speaks out on Movsar Evloev sparring jibe ahead of UFC London

Lerone Murphy has played down the significance of his sparring triumph over Movsar Evloev after taking to social media to aim a dig at his UFC London opponent. Manchester featherweight Murphy headlines Saturday’s card at the O2 Arena in a clash that has serious title ramifications, with it expected the winner will be next in line to face champion Alexander Volkanovski. Both 34-year-old Murphy and Evloev, 32, will put their undefeated records on the line, but “The Miracle” took to social media a few months ago to post old screenshots of a sparring session with the Russian, in which Evloev was shown lying in a heap seemingly at the hands of Murphy. Murphy captioned the post: “He ain’t undefeated,” and Evloev has since given further context to the screenshots, admitting that his rival dropped him with a liver shot eight years ago while sparring in Thailand. Instead of adding fuel to the fire in his pre-fight press conference, Murphy insisted the sparring session wasn’t in his thoughts and paid respect to how far Evloev has come in the years that have passed. “It’s eight years ago, training’s training, not taking too much from that. The fight’s going to be a fight,” said Murphy, who replied “of course” to the question whether Evloev has levelled up since training together. “ Obviously he's good. He's fought in the UFC, he's a number one contender and he’s 19-0, so I respect everyone in this sport that puts in the work and grinds and fights. But it's just another name for me.” Murphy comes into UFC London off the back of a knockout of the year contender over debuting hot-shot Aaron Pico, sleeping the American with a stunning spinning back elbow last summer. Having been backed by Volkanovski for a title shot in the aftermath of that win, Murphy was overlooked for the main event of UFC 325 which saw Diego Lopes handed another championship bout, 10 months after being handedly beaten by the Australian. Murphy previously admitted he had been given no assurances that his meeting with Evloev would be a definitive number one contender bout for a shot at the gold, despite it very much appearing that will be the case. Brazilian star Jean Silva, who is sixth in the rankings, has in the meantime staked his own claim for a title opportunity, insisting he is set to jump the queue for a meeting with Volkanovski. But after already being passed over once, Murphy has reiterated that whoever gets his arm raised on Saturday must be rewarded with a championship bout. “He’s 1-1 in his last two. The winner of me and Movsar fights for the title and it shouldn’t be any other way,” he said. "You just never know in this game. It's all about perform a finish. I want it to be undeniable so they can't not give me the shot."