Lerone Murphy🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (16-0-1) is a well-rounded fighter who on the feet pressures and uses his very honed jab to control range and as the catalyst for his fast and sneakily powerful combinations that include crosses, hooks, spinning back kicks, body kicks, and leg kicks. Lerone cleanly initiates the clinch and uses close range punches, elbows, and knees which can help him slow opponents rhythm, especially fighters whos striking success comes from being able to flow, Lerone won't let you do that. Defensively, he utilizes great footwork and head movement to not only avoid damage but bait out opportunities for him to land his accurate counters that can rock off guard/balance fighters. In the grappling offensively, he mixes single legs at the end of strikes well but not at a high volume. It's opportunistic. On the ground, he prioritizes half guard, side control, and full mount and can bank control or use ground & pound elbows to finish or open make transitions easier. Picos defensive grappling hasn't been tested at the UFC level, and Lerone could be the first. Defensively he looks to avoid takedown attempts entirely using his elite footwork and range control, you will rarely see Lerone let an opponent close distance and have him against the cage which has allowed him to also be able to circle out of things like clinch exchanges as shown against Dan Ige. When fighters shoot he is not a fish out of water and has good technique to negate shots with a good sprawl, and if they advance past that he reverses postions well with hip control and underhooks. Even past that if you get him down, he works to his feet quickly but stays calm on his back, keeping him safe from ground & pound or submissions. Aaron Pico🇺🇸 (13-4) is a former Bellator/PFL fighter who has an extensive wrestling background but is surprisingly more known for his KO's in MMA. Pico has been crafting his boxing since the age of 10 and has trained under Freddie Roach which installed fundamentals of distance management, accuracy in his shot placement, and tendency to work the body during his powerful combinations that include jabs, crosses, overhand rights, left hooks to the body, uppercuts, and low kicks. On the other hand, I'm concerned about his striking defense and durability. Aaron has been knocked out in 3 of his 4 losses do to either technical errors or his tendency to be too agressive, this kind of stuff has already costed him against non UFC level competition so I'm not sure how much improvement he can make in that area. As we know his wrestling is fully refined, he has a wide variety of single leg, double leg, and bodylock takedowns he chains together accompanied by strong top control and heavy ground & pound but I'm more interested in talking about the unknowns in his ground game aka his defensive grappling. We've seen him lose multiple grappling exchanges that have led to losses against against Corrales and Borics, so hopefully, in the years since he has been developing past the blue belt level. I think Pico is ranked level, but I am not sure he's ready for this big of a test so soon. I'm picking Murphy, I can see something as definitive as a KO/TKO in the first two rounds or a decision.