Lauren Murphy was supposed to be fighting Ashlee Evans-Smith later this month at UFC Fight Night Phoenix, but a pre-existing injury knocked the fighter from the card.
While some fighters may relent having a long time off due to injury, it was an opportunity that Murphy used to improve her overall skill set.
“I’m almost cleared now, so it was just a little bit too soon. I had an issue with some cartilage in my foot and so the doctor went in there and they took out cartilage and they’re just letting it grow back on it’s own, in order to do that…they drilled into my bone and when the bone bleeds, it gives the cartilage nutrients so it can grow back on top of the bone itself. It just takes awhile, it’s a healing process. You kind of have to baby it, so I’ve been doing that. The surgery was in September, the doctor told me ‘you’re probably not gonna be cleared for about six months.’ So I was pushing hard, I was really hoping that I could get cleared for this February fight. But it’s just…it’s just about six to eight weeks…a little too soon, I’m just now able to start doing just about almost everything. I wear my shoes a lot, I never used to wear wrestling shoes, but I might go take out some stock in Nike or something because I have some Nike wrestling shoes and they’re always on my feet now. I’ve been getting some really good work and I’ve made some really good use of the time that I’ve had and I’ve really improved in a lot of areas, particularly in my stand up. I wasn’t able to grapple for a long time, I could just move around (doing) like boxing and a little bit of kickboxing. My footwork has really improved and my head movement is improved and so I’ve made the most out of my time off,” says Murphy in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
Murphy was last seen in action at UFC Fight Night Utica, suffering a unanimous decision loss to Sijara Eubanks.
The UFC star has become friends with “The Man” Becky Lynch, but don’t expect Murphy to enter the squared circle anytime soon.
“I’ve met Becky Lynch a couple of times, she’s actually been to the (MMA) Lab before. She was really, really kind to me when TUF was airing and I was kind of going through it a little bit. She wrote to me and she was just really, really nice. I’ve always been a big Becky Lynch fan because of that and I watched her win the Royal Rumble recently and I just don’t think that…first of all, that’s (pro wrestling) a lot of athleticism. Those women are out there doing some athletic stuff that I don’t think that I’m capable of and secondly, just to put on such a show…I’m a person who is very much myself. I’m very true to myself, I say what I think…I say what I mean and I don’t like to play a role. You can’t fit me in to a box and force me to be a certain way and that was kind of the experience that I had on the Ultimate Fighter, actually they were trying to force me kind of into this heel position. I don’t want to be that, that’s not who I am. I’m just a regular normal person and that’s all I want to be, I don’t think pro wrestling will be for me…but I’ve enjoyed watching it more. As more fighters kind of make the crossover and there’s a little bit more of a crossover between both sports, I’ve enjoyed watching it a little bit more. But I’ll just be a spectator,” says Murphy.
Lynch will now move to a match against Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey at WWE Wrestlemania 35, while Murphy is still training for that eventual Octagon return.
