After competing against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 266, Lauren Murphy can relate to what the victims of Khabib Nurmagomedov experienced.
There haven’t been many gladiators to ever grace the UFC Octagon who exhibited more dominance and utter superiority over their opponents than Khabib Nurmagomedov and Valentina Shevchenko. When watching the utter deflation of their targets, one might think that they all entered the cage already defeated. However, both Khabib & Shevchenko came to the same conclusion: It’s not that their victims lacked self-belief when they entered, but it didn’t take long after the fight began until that belief crumbled.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, one of these aforementioned victims, Lauren Murphy, shared her testimony of what it’s like to share the cage with Valentina Shevchenko, which she believes is an experience tantamount to sharing the cage with The Eagle. And just as Khabib and Shevchenko said of their victims, Murphy entered the fight expecting one thing but soon realized the unstoppable force she was up against.
“It’s a bummer to lose, and that’s the first time I had ever been finished,” Murphy began in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I think it was a good stoppage, I was pretty out of it by the time the ref pulled her off of me. It’s definitely not the outcome we wanted but, to be honest with you, it was pretty cool to be in there with a martial artist of her caliber. That’s a pretty cool experience. That must be what it’s like to go play one-on-one with Michael Jordan, or that’s how guys felt when they were competing with Khabib [Nurmagomedov], because it really was, ‘Holy sh*t, this girl is really on another level.’”
As strong of a comparison there is to be made between the dominance of Khabib Nurmagomedov and that of Valentina Shevchenko, Khabib isn’t the only fighter Murphy compares to “The Bullet.” Another fighter comes to mind, as well as a specific fight that also had a masterful performance.
“It reminded me of when Forrest Griffin fought Anderson Silva, and he said, ‘I tried to punch him, he moved his head, then he looked at me like I was stupid and he hit me back.’ That’s kind of what it was like. This must have been what it was like to fight Anderson in his prime. It’s cool to be in the presence of greatness. She’s an incredible fighter.”
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