Lerone Murphy was shot in the face TWICE before spitting out the bullets – now ‘The Miracle’ is aiming to be the next British UFC star
For those who have played any one of the games from the popular Call of Duty franchise before, the ringing sound which blares out when the main protagonist gets injured will be all too familiar.
But for Lerone Murphy, it simply reminds him of the time he was shot in the face twice outside a barber shop in Manchester before spitting the bullets out.
At around 3.30pm on May 25 in 2013, Murphy was shot twice in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon. Aged just 21 at the time, the victim was rushed to Manchester Royal Infirmary with bullet wounds to his neck and chin.
Former Manchester United and West Ham midfielder Ravel Morrison sent a Tweet of support to his friend, who had to wait until March of the following year to see the assailant arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
But by this point, Murphy had made the conscious decision to change his life for the better and started mixed martial arts training out of the famous All Powers Gym in Stockport. Within six months and fighting under the moniker of 'The Miracle', he had his first amateur fight and was hooked on the sport.
After domestic success came with consummate ease, it became apparent Murphy was destined for bigger and better things and moved to the bright lights of California to train at Alliance MMA.
Featuring the likes of Alexander Gustafsson, Jeremy Stephens and even former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, the gym was the perfect environment for the youngster to hone his skills and move on from the tragedy of Manchester.
Having amassed an eight-fight win streak including five knockouts, Murphy was firmly poised to make his break onto the world stage after choking out Manolo Scianna in just one round at Full Contact Contender 23 in Bolton last May.
However, whilst on an all-inclusive holiday in Jamaica, Murphy got a call from the UFC to appear on the main card of the upcoming event in Abu Dhabi which was to be headlined by none other than lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“It was crazy and at the time I didn’t even believe it,” he told BT Sport. “My coach sent me a message of a message sent from Sean Shelby which just said ‘Will he be ready in time?’
[youtube //www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReYCGLMPHdc]
“I thought he was on about somebody else, but I just said yeah I will take it. I didn’t even know who the kid was.
“But I just took the fight, I wanted to be in the UFC and I knew them chances don’t come around too often so I am here now.”
The opponent was none other than Zubaira Tukhugov, a Russian fighter who is close friends with Khabib himself and seemed to have handpicked Murphy.
Tukhugov’s name may seem familiar with MMA fans and unfortunately it is not for the right reasons.
In November 2016, the Russian was pulled from UFC Fight Night 102 after being notified by USADA of a potential anti-doping violation.
Two out-of-competition samples provided by the Sambo practitioner revealed positive tests for the banned substance ostarine and he received a two-year suspension and was forced to pay $10,000 in arbitration.
Tukhugov was also one of the assailants who jumped into the cage to attack Conor McGregor at UFC 229 after close friend Khabib forced the Irishman to tap in October 2018.
It seemed as though Tukhugov’s return was set up for him to walk through Murphy en route to a simple victory in front of the adoring Arab crowd. But the Manchester-man had not read the script.
Despite getting dropped in the first, Murphy rallied and hurt the aggressive Russian - even threatening to choke him out with a couple of guillotine attempts in the second round. Although he spent large parts of the fight grappling from the floor and trying to get his opponent off him, ‘The Miracle’ was the superior striker and landed plenty of stinging shots which forced his opponent to respect him.
As the result was read out to be a split decision draw, the partisan crowd which had chanted for Tukhugov all night showed their appreciation for both men as Murphy saluted his new fans.
The 28-year-old was scheduled to fight in front of his home fans for the first time as a UFC fighter in London on March 21 at the O2 Arena against Gabriel Martinez.
However, the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus has put an end to those dreams for now, with Murphy's frustration clear for the world to see.
He wrote on Instagram: “Devastated to announce my fight has been cancelled due to the corona outbreak.
“1 week away from fight night. After 2 trips to Thailand and countless hours in the gym.
“This was the best I’ve ever felt going into a fight, mentally and physically. Hopefully this will all clear up soon and we will all be back to work!”
It beggars belief the Mancunian is so upset about the cancellation of his fight, yet can remain so calm while talking about removing bullets from his own mouth after getting shot.
Considering what he had achieved so far in his career, who could bet against ‘The Miracle’ from achieving his goals?