Lauren Murphy began her MMA career back in June of 2010. It’s been a ride with many twists and turns like any good story. This past Saturday evening at UFC Nashville, her in-cage story came to a close after 23 professional fights.
With her retirement from active competition fresh on the minds of MMA fans the world over, there’s no time like the present to discuss the career that was for the one nicknamed “Lucky.” Let’s get started.
Lauren Murphy: The Early Years in MMA
Murphy was born in July of 1983 in Anchorage, AK, but by the time she was 11 years of age, tragedy struck her family with the death of her dad from injuries sustained in an aircraft accident. Without her father in her life, Lauren Murphy had a rough go of things, turning to drugs and alcohol, culminating in her leaving school before she had a chance to graduate.
“I really think that drinking and smoking cigarettes aged me 40 years,” Lauren Murphy said in an interview. “When I stopped, I started reverse aging.” In 2009, Murphy took her son to a Brazilian jiu-jitsu course. Soon after, she found herself enrolled in the same class as a means of supporting her child.
“I fell in love with it and started going all the time,” she said ahead of her 2013 Invicta FC debut. “I began training [in] MMA about three months later and took my first pro fight three months after that.”
It didn’t take Lauren Murphy too long to attain championship gold in the sport of MMA. In only her third career fight, she stopped Willow Bailey in the second round by TKO after the latter could not continue due to an eye injury for the Alaska Fighting Championships (AFC) Featherweight Championship.
UFC Comes Calling for Lauren Murphy
By the second week of December 2013, Murphy boasted a perfect 6-0 record with two championship wins to her name. At that point, she moved down to the bantamweight division, scoring the inaugural Invicta FC Bantamweight Championship by way of fourth-round TKO (knee injury) over Miriam Nakamoto in Invicta FC 7.
In the wake of that victory, she found herself as a member of the UFC’s active roster. During the Aug. 16, 2014 UFC Fight Night in Bangor, ME, Lauren Murphy drew Sara McMann as her first assignment under the UFC banner.
This was also where she tasted defeat for the first time by way of split decision. Ultimately, it would take Murphy three attempts to get her initial victory in the UFC after her sophomore fight versus Liz Carmouche also ended in a loss (unanimous decision), defeating Kelly Faszholz via third-round knockout.
Lauren Murphy Gets TUF
Upon starting her UFC stint at 1-3, Murphy would be cast as part of the 26th season of The Ultimate Fighter television series, a season where women’s flyweights would battle for a shot at becoming the UFC’s first-ever champion in that division.
Lauren Murphy staked claim to the No. 3 seed in the tournament bracket, drawing No. 14 seed Nicco Montano in her opening-round fight. Montano bested her by unanimous decision and Murphy revealed on FS1’s TUF Talk that there was friction between her and her coach, Eddie Alvarez.
“I felt like the way the practices were run, some of the things for my fight preparation, I wasn’t happy about,” Lauren Murphy said. “I really wasn’t happy with stuff that happened after my fight and that kind of set off a chain of resentment.”
She’d appear in the TUF 26 live finale on FS1 in December of 2017, besting Barb Honchak via split decision, following it up with a unanimous decision loss to Sijara Eubanks in June of 2018. After a pair of scheduled fights were postponed without a punch being thrown, she’d return to competition in the back-half of 2019.
Lauren Murphy Goes on Hot Streak and Defeats “Cupcake”
On Aug. 3 of that year, Murphy went on her first sustained winning streak since her pre-UFC days. That summer night, she finished Mara Borella inside the third round with strikes. All told, she’d win five fights in a row, with the run coming to an end by way of fourth-round TKO in the fall of 2021.
Valentina Shevchenko handed her the defeat to deny her the UFC Women’s Flyweight Championship. From there, inactivity showed up once again for Lauren Murphy. Two scheduled fights between Murphy and Miesha Tate were scrubbed, with the pair finally meeting inside the Octagon in July of 2022.
The third time was the charm for Lauren Murphy, as she defeated “Cupcake” by unanimous decision after 15 minutes of action.
Lauren Murphy Decides to Retire During Fight Week of UFC Nashville
In July of 2025, Murphy revealed her intentions to end her career as a fighter after the UFC Nashville undercard inside Bridgestone Arena. She discussed the move to retire with Aaron Bronsteter of Canadian UFC media rightsholder Sportsnet.
“This is the last fight, this is the last one,” she said. “I have two fights left on my contract and I don’t want to fulfill the last one. I love the idea of retiring as a UFC fighter. Even if they cut me and end my contract or whatever, I’m not going to go fight anywhere else. I don’t want to go backwards. This is the best promotion in the world. It has the best fighters in the world. I’ve been here most of my career. I went from Alaska to Invicta to here, and I’m just really proud of that.”
Eduarda Moura served as her last assignment in the UFC, losing by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) on the scorecards. Lauren Murphy ends her career with a record of 16-7 across all competitions and an 8-7 mark under the UFC promotional banner and will soon turn her attention to her new career as a judge for MMA fights in Texas.
