Youssef Zalal says Movsar Evloev vs. Lerone Murphy 'tough fight,' picks winner
Youssef Zalal sees Movsar Evloev prevailing with his grappling at UFC London. Evloev (19-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) takes on fellow unbeaten featherweight contender Lerone Murphy (17-0-1 MMA, 9-0-1 UFC) in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 270 ( Paramount+ ) headliner at The O2 in London. "That's a tought fight," Zalal told MMA Junkie.
"Obviously Movsar, the grappling is high, high, high level, so I'm interested to see how Lerone does with the high-level wrestling because everybody thought (Aaron) Pico was going to do it, but Pico is a really good boxer, as well, and obviously got himself caught, but I'm excited to see. If I had to pick, I think Movsar wins that fight. " Zalal (18-5-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) meets Aljamain Sterling (20-5 MMA, 17-5 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 274 headliner on April 25 at the Meta APEX.
While many view Evloev vs. Murphy as a No. 1 contender bout, Zalal isn't ruling himself out of the title race.
"Again, I said this in the Josh Emmett fight, and a lot of people thought I was crazy: I think it all depends on performance," Zalal said. "Whoever goes out there and has a better performance is almost guaranteed a title shot. That's how I feel about it, and that's my mentality going into the fight against Aljamain.
" This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC London: Featherweight contender makes Evloev vs. Murphy prediction