In 2013, Lerone Murphy was shot twice in the face outside a barber shop in his hometown of Manchester. He survived.
Recovery was long and the Englishman admits to suffering in those dark times. It also helped him to appreciate that better times were ahead, and that he had to meet challenges face on.
It’s a mentality that has served him well in his career as a mixed martial artist. Murphy, 33, is undefeated in 15 fights (winning 14, drawing one) and is on the back of six wins in a row in the UFC.
“I just believe that has just kind of shown me that you can go to the darkest places in this world and you can be down and out, and still get back up and change your life and do better things,” Murphy told The National as he recalled that fateful day 11 years ago.
“Every dark night has a bright day after that. That's kind of what I live by. Like, it's never the end, and you can always pick yourself back up."
Murphy is reluctant to elaborate further. Instead of reliving a dark past, his focus is now on a bright future, one pointed to UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi on October 26 when takes on the talented American Dan Ige.
He has fond memories of the UAE, vanquishing three of his opponents on his rise to the No 12-ranked featherweight in MMA's lead promotion.
“Abu Dhabi is an excellent place – I love Abu Dhabi. It makes me happy. It’s been a while since my last fight in Abu Dhabi [a second-round KO of Makwan Amirkhani], and as soon as the card got announced and when I was asked to be on it, I have been looking forward to coming back for sure,” Murphy said.
Murphy hopes victory over Ige at UFC 308, where featherweight champion Ilia Topuria defends his belt against Max Holloway, a former champion of the 145-pound division himself, in the main event will pave the way to a crack at an opponent ranked in the top five and, eventually, a title shot.
“I'm not looking past Dan Ige. It's a tough fight and I know what's in front of me. It would be wrong for me to look past him, he's a very dangerous guy,” Murphy said of his opponent, who boasts a record of 18 wins and eight losses.
“I would like to take all of them, every single one of them, but I’m not looking past Dan. But with a win over him, I feel like I definitely deserve a top-five opponent. One hundred per cent.
“I'll be 15 and 0 and seven from seven wins in the UFC. So, I've seen people get title shots off that and you definitely got to give me a top-five opponent.”
Murphy has been preparing by bringing a young Dagestani fighter in for this training camp who, he says, has a similar style to Ige.
“My training camp's been amazing actually, I've got some good work in. I'm training with a young Dagestani Russian kid who is exactly like Dan Ige. So I'm getting some good looks and my wrestling has improved massively,” Murphy said.
“I feel like I'm a complete fighter now so I'm looking forward to this challenge. I think Ige, everybody knows is a power puncher and he can wrestle so that's his strengths.
“I'm looking to obviously turn his strengths into weaknesses. I've watched a lot of Ige, I've been watching him for years now so I know his game inside out. But it's all about who executes the game plan the best on the night.
“I'm sure he knows my weaknesses and strengths so he will be training for that also. I'm looking forward to the fight, it's gonna be a good fight.”
Murphy comes into the contest on the back of a dominant victory over the veteran Edson Barbosa in May, his sixth in a row after his debut draw in the UFC in 2019.
“I believe it's given me confidence. A lot of people are saying ‘Oh, it looked amazing’ and so on,” he said of the unanimous decision over the Brazilian.
“I didn't feel like that was my best but I still got better to show. I believe that's given me confidence. I feel like I won every round and I feel like I've improved massively since then anyway so I'm even better than I was in May.
“I have to keep working. I train hard every day. I push myself to the limits every day to reach my goal. I want to be the UFC champion,” he said.
As a boy, Murphy was an aspiring footballer, and even had trials at some of England's top clubs as a junior. He took up martial arts in his twenties, and has no regrets about the path his life has taken since.
“I started training for martial arts at 22 years old, which is very old. Not very old, but a lot of people start younger than that, so you're pretty late on in life anyway,” he said.
“I used to watch MMA anyway. I loved watching the sport, and then I just started training in it just for fun. And one thing led to the next, I had my first amateur fight and then from then I just knew that's what I wanted to do,” he said.
It was after his second fight as an amateur Murphy decided to pursue MMA as a career.
“I had a good fight, a very good fight with an experienced guy and then everybody around me was telling I had the stuff in me to take up MMA full time,” he said.
“I loved the respect I got from that and then I went to America and trained with some UFC guys there. This is when I was amateur and I've done well with them. So, from then I kind of knew that with a few years of experience I can make it to the UFC.”
Murphy ended the interview with a message for UAE fight fans: “Make sure you tune in to 308. It's going to be fireworks."
