NEWARK, N.J. – Since joining the UFC roster five years ago, Lauren Murphy has been in a lot of competitive battles.
She may not have found the success she’s looking for yet, but win or lose, she’s been proud of her performances.
On Saturday, Murphy (10-4 MMA, 2-4 UFC) takes on Mara Romero Borella (12-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at UFC on ESPN 5 in Newark, N.J. Murphy sees the bout as a chance to prove herself in an area she has sometimes struggled.
“Mara is a good grappler, so I’m looking forward to testing myself against a good grappler again,” Murphy told MMA Junkie. “I want to see if I can negate that grappling a little better this time that maybe I did with Sijara (Eubanks) or I did with (Sara) McMann.
“I fought some of the very best grapplers in the UFC, some of the best female grapplers that are in 135 and 125, so for me, I think it’s a good test. I’m not really afraid to fight any striker, but fighting grapplers has obviously been a challenge for me, so I’m just willing to keep at it until I have success against a really good grappler. I think Mara is a good chance for me to have that opportunity for success against a good grappler.”
Murphy (10-4 MMA, 2-4 UFC) has split her first two appearances at flyweight, and is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Eubanks at UFC Fight Night 131. It’s been over a year since Murphy last competed after being sidelined due to a foot injury. Looking for positives in the time away, Murphy said the layoff has helped her work on other areas of her game.
“It’s pretty tough to take that much time off, but there’s some positives to it,” Murphy said. “I needed to let my foot heal, and I never stopped working in that time, you know what I mean? So I still managed to get a lot of work in. I just had to work different areas in my game, which is really good for you. It’s really good for fighters to branch out like that, so in some ways, it can be a blessing in disguise. Of course it would be nice to fight four, five times a year, but we don’t really have that option anyway, so it’s fine, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
In her four UFC losses, former Invicta FC bantamweight champion Murphy believes she put on good showings and should have gotten the nod in some of them. She’s been in there with top-level competition and multiple former title challengers.
“I think I’ve had some great performances – even in some of my losses I felt like I had really good performances,” Murphy said. “I think I beat Sara McMann. I think I beat Liz Carmouche. Those were super close fights. The fight with (Katlyn) Chookagian was like ‘this’ close. I was, like, so close to winning that fight, and I feel like that was a really good performance for being short notice. Those were all like learning lessons for me.
“My performance against Barb (Honchak) was probably the best I ever had, and I’m looking forward to finding that sweet spot again – kind of getting into a flow state and letting everything go, letting it all hang out.”
