This coming weekend, Lerone Murphy returns to the UFC Octagon after almost two years out. The inactivity though was no fault of his own.
Rewind a few years back and Lerone Murphy was fighting for his life after being knocked off his bike. Bleeding heavily from his head, Murphy explained that he ‘was close to death’.
“Yeah it was bad, close to death. But I’m back to full health now which is great and I feel as good as I’ve always felt.
“I’ve got a purpose, I’ve got a bigger purpose in life, and that’s what pushes me on. I feel like I’m here to do something big so i’ve got to do my part. I thought it was game over, I didn’t think I’d be back here. Doctors were saying all sorts, saying ‘fighting is no good now’, it was heartbreaking.” Lerone said.
Despite the time away due to the horrific injury, it wasn’t time wasted feeling sorry for himself. In that time, Murphy learnt things about himself that he wouldn’t have, had he not have gone through the terrible situation.
When talking about what he learnt in his time away from the cage, he said: “That i’m resilient and I know what I want, this is what I love, it showed me that this is what I love.
“Before hand I was just doing it if that makes sense, I was kind of just doing it because I am good at it and I don’t do anything else, but now I feel like that time off was good, I needed that because now I know what I can do, i’ve seen other people doing it that I know i’m better than so I’ve just got to go out there and push now and get what I deserve.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Lerone Murphy above. He takes on Gabriel Santos at UFC 286 on Saturday night at the o2 Arena.
