Lerone Murphy’s spectacular spinning elbow knockout of Aaron Pico in the co-main event of UFC 319 on Saturday night has put him firmly on the radar of featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who is know eager to fight him before the end of the year.

If things had gone differently it could have been another undefeated featherweight contender Movsar Evloev who fought the debuting Pico first and potentially paved the way for a title shot with Volkanovsk. However, an injury forced him out and now it seems that Murphy’s big win has put him in a strong position to be next in line, having already amassed eight wins in the Octagon prior to the fireworks he delivered in Chicago.

“I tried to make this happen,” Volkanovski said said on YouTube regarding the Evloev fight. “I thought [Movsar] deserves it… Then he had this fight [against Pico], then I’m like, ‘He’s gonna have to do this fight and then he definitely gets it.’ Then he pulled out… It doesn’t look like it’s gonna be Movsar…

“Now it looks like it’s going to be Lerone Murphy. It makes a lot of sense. Let’s do it [in] December, sounds great.”

So it seems it’s all down to the UFC now, and at the post-fight press conference Dana White appeared to give it his seal of approval.

“I love it,” White replied when asked about the match-up.

“It’s a weird thing to say with a guy who has a record like he has, and sits where he sits in the division, that tonight was sort of a coming-out party for him,” White said of Murphy. “But it definitely was.”