{"id":495217,"date":"2025-08-19T15:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=495217"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:56:07","slug":"alexander-valkonovski-says-murphy-fight-is-a-no-brainer","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/alexander-valkonovski-says-murphy-fight-is-a-no-brainer\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Valkonovski says Murphy fight is a &#8216;no brainer&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski believes Britain\u2019s Lerone Murphy deserves his shot at the title after delivering a spectacular knockout at UFC 319.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy, fighting on just three weeks\u2019 notice, sent Aaron Pico to the floor with a spinning back elbow that lit up the card on Saturday night. The victory not only extended his unbeaten record to 17 but also marked his ninth consecutive win since joining the UFC in 2019.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Lerone Murphy is eyeing a golden opportunity against Alex Volkanovski at the end of the year \ud83c\udfc6 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aQLFbHXdPb\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/aQLFbHXdPb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ufcontnt\/status\/1957812876804083814?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 19, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The performance immediately pushed the 34-year-old Manchester native into the championship conversation, and Volkanovski was quick to acknowledge him as a worthy contender.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou couldn\u2019t have scripted it any better,\u201d Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. \u201cYou get a guy who goes in and does a massive knockout like that on a big card, on a nine-fight win streak \u2014 I think it\u2019s a bit of a no-brainer. December is looking good, let\u2019s make it happen. Lerone Murphy, congratulations, see you soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;I&#8217;m next in line! Let&#8217;s go, Volkanovski!&#8221; &#8211; Lerone Murphy calls out the champ! \ud83c\udfc6<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC319?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#UFC319<\/a> | LIVE on TNT Sports &amp; discovery+ <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ebyuAdaMne\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/ebyuAdaMne<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ufcontnt\/status\/1956929213673373876?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Murphy currently sits sixth in the featherweight rankings, and with his momentum and highlight-reel finish, the stage now appears set for a blockbuster title clash later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski believes Britain\u2019s Lerone Murphy deserves his shot at the title after delivering a spectacular knockout at UFC 319. Murphy, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":495218,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17371,26132,26753,20541,18148],"news_category":[16710,16715],"gn_keywords":[19739,26129,26754,1093,1072],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"Lerone Murphy knocked out Aaron Pico and is now one of the favorites for featherweight title fight","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495219,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495217\/revisions\/495219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495217"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=495217"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=495217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}