Edson Barboza vs Lerone Murphy Prediction: Bet on the Brazilian's experience

On 19 May in Las Vegas will be held another UFC tournament. In the main event, Edson Barboza from Brazil and Englishman Lerone Murphy, two bright representatives of the striking style of fighting, will share the ring.

Edson Barboza is a rather popular fighter who regularly delights fans with colourful confrontations, he has been competing in the UFC for ages and his opponents have included such men as Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson, Donald Cerrone, Justin Gagey, Beneil Dariush, the list is endless.

He is regularly written off, but time after time the Brazilian proves that age is just a number on a passport. It is clear that he has already abandoned his championship ambitions, but he can still knock out anyone in his division.

Edson treats his next opponent with respect and without any hint of hat-tricking, despite his not the highest status and authority. But Murphy is still the favourite, so it makes sense.

Lerone Murphy is considered by many to be a promising prospect, but we look at these words with irony - the Brit is already 32 years old, and he has never seen top opposition in front of him in the ring. In fact, the veteran Barboza is the toughest opponent of his career. Murphy's record numbers are nice, of course, with zero losses and one draw, but a draw with Zubaira Tukhugov hints at his level.

Lerone doesn't like to fight, most of his victories have been by knockout, however, the number of knockout victories in his record is unimpressive.

His last two wins have been by judges' decisions, and in his last fight he fought Joshua Coulibao (who lost his next fight after the defeat).

The bookmaker odds make us take a closer look at Lerone Murphy's skills, but no matter how much we looked into it, we didn't find anything outstanding there. He looked powerful in his last fight with Coulibao (although he couldn't finish), and before that he lost to Gabriel Santos (the judges gave him the split decision win).

But the skills of Edson Barboza are well known to us - he is a very clever fighter, with a huge arsenal of striking techniques, who will be able to ‘stretch the pleasure’ for all five rounds.