Lauren Murphy Discusses Eddie Alvarez’s ‘Bizarre’ Behavior During ‘TUF 26’

Time is supposed to heal all wounds, but it seems that Lauren Murphy still holds a grudge toward Eddie Alvarez.

Murphy took part in “The Ultimate Fighter 26” in 2017, starting as a member of Team Alvarez. The show pitted the former two-time Bellator lightweight champion and former UFC lightweight champion against former WSOF lightweight champion Justin Gaethje. That season exclusively featured the women's flyweight division, and the UFC crowned the promotion's inaugural 125-pound champion in the season's finale.

In a recent interview with MMAFighting, the former Invicta FC bantamweight champion said that Alvarez was “really degrading” toward all the women on the reality series, bringing forward some examples of his behavior on the show.

“He came to the house one night ... 16 women living in a mansion,” she said. “And he came to the house with a friend of his that wasn’t even a coach on the show – just a random guy that none of us met. He got drunk with his friend in our house, watched fights that we weren’t allowed to watch, and then left and never interacted with any of us. It was super disrespectful and bizarre.”

In the first round of the show, Murphy lost to Nicco Montano via unanimous decision. Montano would then win the whole tournament after overcoming Roxanne Modafferi via unanimous decision at ‘The Ultimate Fighter 26’ finale. Murphy didn’t take that loss well. A few days later she decided to train with Team Gaethje, leaving her former team after some disagreements with Alvarez.

“That competition was for the UFC belt,” she said. “That’s literally my dream, and it’s Eddie’s dream, too, which makes it even worse, because you would think that a guy like that, that aspires to be the champion and had been the UFC champion, would understand how badly we wanted to win that competition. That competition really meant a lot to me. I felt like I was under a lot of pressure. I think Eddie knew that, and I think he knows what that feeling is like, and he’s talked about it a lot. And instead of helping people in his same position. Instead, he chose to humiliate them. And to me, that just seemed so wrong.”

In her latest Octagon appearance, Murphy defeated Andrea Lee by split decision at UFC 247. Even though many media members scored the fight in favor of her opponent, Murphy believes there is “no controversy” about the close nature of the scorecards. Before that fight, she overcame Mara Romero Borella via third-round technical knockout at UFC on ESPN 5.