UFC London Predictions: Historic battle of unbeaten featherweights

UFC Fight Night comes to the O2 Arena in London and matches unbeaten featherweights as Russian Movsar Evloev meets Manchester’s ‘Miracle’ Lerone Murphy. The bout headlines a card that also features highlight-reel welterweight Michael ‘Venom’ Page against Sam Patterson and feared Georgian Roman Dolidze taking on Gloucester’s Christian Leroy Duncan. TNT Sports will broadcast the event live.

Read on for my UFC London predictions.

The main event sees the largest undefeated combined record for a UFC fight in history. Evloev and Murphy hold a 36-0-1 total between them. Fittingly, this historic combat in the capital is an eliminator to face UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski.

Evloev is fighting in the UK for the first time as a professional, but is unlikely to be fazed. The 19-0 contender has won in Singapore, America, Canada, the UAE and China. Evloev’s passport gets punched almost as often as his opponents do.

The 32-year-old does have form against British fighters. Two bouts ago, Evloev outpointed Ipswich’s Arnold Allen. That win was over two years ago now. Evloev’s most recent bout, if recent is the right word, was a December 2024 points win over Aljamain Sterling.

Evloev has pulled out of numerous bouts and been beset by injuries and illness. Fairly or unfairly, many fans have lost patience for a fighter not considered to offer the most fan-friendly style even when fit. The Russian has never finished a UFC opponent inside the distance. While bouts with Sterling and Diego Lopes were exciting, many of his other outings have been endurance tests for the fans as well as the opposing fighter.

Murphy is known to sprinkle in a little more excitement. A first-round, spinning back elbow finish of Aaron Pico last August was a highlight-reel moment for the 30-year-old. But Murphy had been the distance in four consecutive fights since another clip-worthy finish, when he stopped Makwan Amirkhani with a knee in 2021.

These two look likely to go the long way round in London. I give Evloev the edge in such a fight at 20/21 to win on points.

Elsewhere, the ‘MVP’ returns as Michael ‘Venom’ Page prepares for a middleweight rumble with Sam Patterson. Page is best known to casual fans for his viral ‘Pokeball’ celebration a few years back. The Brit has dipped into other fandoms, busting out the Thanos snap complete with Infinity Gauntlet too.

But what he does in the cage can be just as exciting. But Page is 38 now and has wisely won the long way in recent outings. Decision victories over Sharabutdin Magomedov and Jared Cannonier established Page as the 10th-ranked Middleweight in the company. But ‘MVP’ is back down at welterweight for this fight.

All-English combat opposite Sam Patterson is a dangerous ask for the ageing Page. The 29-year-old Patterson is on a four-fight UFC winning streak and would be only too happy to take a major scalp on home soil.

I’m not sure Patterson is quite there yet though. There are Pokeballs left in the pocket of ‘MVP’, who I back to win on points at a price boosted 9/4.

UFC London Full Card

Main Card

Movsar Evloev vs Lerone Murphy

Luke Riley vs Michael Aswell

Michael Page vs Sam Patterson

Iwo Baraniewski vs Austen Lane

Roman Dolidze vs Christian Leroy

Kurtis Campbell vs Danny Silva 

Preliminary Card

Mason Jones vs Axel Sola

Nathaniel Wood vs Losene Keita

Mário Pinto vs Felipe Franco

Mantas Kondratavičius vs Antonio Trócoli

Louie Sutherland vs Brando Peričić

Shaqueme Rock vs Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady

Shanelle Dyer vs Ravena Oliveira

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