After a one-sided decision loss to former champion Jessica Andrade, Lauren Murphy said she’s ready to take some time off.
Murphy (16-6 MMA, 8-6 UFC), who will turn 40 in July, was largely dominated from bell to bell by Andrade (24-9 MMA, 15-7 UFC), who swept the scorecards with two 10-8 rounds from two judges and one 10-8 frame from the third. Their women’s flyweight fight was part of the UFC 283 main card at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
Murphy had been on one of the best runs in the 125-pound division. Heading into the fight with former women’s strawweight champ Andrade, Murphy had won six of seven fights. Her lone loss in that stretch was a fourth-round TKO to dominant champ Valentina Shevchenko in a September 2021 title fight.
Murphy followed that loss up with a decision win over former women’s bantamweight titleholder Miesha Tate in Tate’s flyweight debut to get back on track, and along with Andrade was hopeful for a potential title shot with a win in Brazil.
Now, she posted on Instagram on Sunday, she’ll step back to rest, heal and assess what should be next. She also said she’s grateful to her corner for not stopping the fight – which is something the broadcast crew of Jon Anik, Daniel Cormier and Paul Felder mentioned multiple times during the fight.
“The fight was a beat down but not the way I imagined it 🙄,” Murphy posted. “Sometimes shit goes down and you just gotta learn from it and get better. Jessica is an insanely tough opponent and I will learn a lot from her. All these experiences – the good ones and bad ones – make me a better athlete and human. Thankfully I’m all good, nose is a little busted up and my head needs rest, but I’ll be fine in a few days.
“I’m glad my corner didn’t stop the fight. Tbh I thought the ref was going to stop it in the second round but the bell rang before he decided to. Either way, I was grateful for the chance to keep fighting. My head and nose will heal with rest, and my heart will heal with time. My adult life has been a dream, and sometimes I have to pay for that dream. I’ll be back sometime, but for now I’m just gonna lick my wounds and rest a bit.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnuElmJuVCI/
Andrade’s win was her third straight, though a submission of Amanda Lemos in April 2022 was at strawweight. She won the 115-pound title in 2019 with a knockout of Rose Namajunas, but lost the belt later that year in 42 seconds to Zhang Weili. Then she lost a rematch to Namajunas and moved up to flyweight. After a win over Katlyn Chookagian, she got a 2021 title shot with Shevchenko, but was knocked out in the second round.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 283.
