"I kinda felt embarrassed"- Dan Ige’s coach reveals mistakes and turning point in UFC 308 loss against Lerone Murphy
Dan Ige's coach recently shared his immediate thoughts on his pupil's loss to Lerone Murphy at UFC 308. The bout went the distance and saw the Englishman earn the unanimous decision win after all three judges scored it 29-28 in his favor.
The first round was action packed and saw Ige drop Murphy with a counter left hook and swarm him. However, the Englishman managed to weather the storm and survive the onslaught before securing a takedown to end the round. Ige appeared to have overcommitted to the first round finish as he didn't have the same energy in the following rounds, ultimately costing him the fight.
During JAXXON PODCAST's UFC 308 recap episode, Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick appeared via FaceTime and shared his thoughts on what he believed went wrong for his pupil. Nicksick mentioned that Ige exhausted himself in the first round and believes he showcased that he was still a better fighter than Murphy:
"It's hard to talk about right now. [Ige] kinda gassed himself out after that flurry in round one kinda looking for the finish. It's like, you wanna be calculated but you also wanna have some chaos within that finish. And once he couldn't get that finish, I think he just kinda gassed his arms out. Completely took round two off...but, like, [Murphy] wasn't better than Dan anywhere."
Check out Erick Nicksick's comments regarding Dan Ige's performance below:
T.J. Dillashaw agrees with Eric Nicksick's assessment of Dan Ige's UFC 308 performance
Former bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw agreed with coach Eric Nicksick's assessment of Dan Ige's UFC 308 performance and noted that he believed the Hawaiian could've done more.
During the aforementioned clip, Dillashaw mentioned that he believes Ige could have won the fight and questioned whether not getting the finish in the first round took a physical toll:
"I knew that [Ige] wasn't not trying hard, but I just knew that he had more in him and you could see that, right? He should've won that fight. I'm saying it day in and day out, he should've won that fight. I didn't know if he was maybe overtrained for the fight or if it was just that adrenaline dump from going too hard in the first round."
Check out the official decision for Lerone Murphy vs. Dan Ige below: