When you first speak to Josh Emmett you immediately get the sense that he is a polite, level-headed and humble man.
Don’t let the fact that he is an all-round nice guy fool you though, Emmett is one of the scariest fighters in the entire 145-pound division with one-punch knockout power that could turn his opponents lights out at any given moment – just ask UFC veteran Michael Johnson or Ricardo Lamas.
Outside of his affable persona, the biggest takeaway from talking to Emmett is that he has an unwavering belief in his ability to match it UFC’s elite.
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In the lead up to Sunday’s highly-anticipated UFC 284 blockbuster event in Perth, Emmett says he is confident his relentless hard work and dedication will pay off when he looks to upset the enigmatic Yair Rodriguez who comes into their UFC interim featherweight title fight as a $1.60 Betr favourite.
Speaking exclusively with Fox Sports Australia late last week, Emmett – who comes into Sunday’s co-main event as a $2.30 underdog on Betr – suggested that while Rodriguez may represent his toughest test to date on paper, he views him as just another obstacle to achieving his career-long goal of becoming a UFC championship.
“I’m only focused on winning and things that are going to get me to winning the title,” Emmett said.
“I’m not focused on anything else, because it is just noise to me.
“So if it doesn’t dealing, if it doesn’t deal with winning and doing what I need to prepare for something, then why even why even talk about it?”
It is this type of singular focus that has enabled the Phoenix native to rebound from the lowest point in his UFC career – a controversial defeat to veteran Jeremy Stephens back in 2018 – to win five consecutive fights.
“I guess the secret to this streak has been just staying focused on the task at hand,” he said.
“I lost in 2018 and then I’ve just been doing what I do and focusing on myself and so I moved on from that pretty quickly.”
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In the Stephens fight, not only did Emmett suffer his first ever stoppage loss – after being rocked with a huge left hook before being finished with seemingly illegal elbows to the back of the head and a suspected illegal knee while grounded – but he also suffered debilitating facial injuries reminiscent of a car crash victim.
“My lateral orbital was fractured, my orbital wall, my maxillary sinus – that’s like my cheek – it was completely caved in. I had my nasal bone fractured and my zygomatic arch was broken as well, with a few other fractures in the face,” Emmett said of his injuries during a 2018 appearance on Ariel Helwani’s ‘The MMA Hour’.
“It was impinging the main muscle in my eye, which was disturbing the movement of my eye. Also, the nerve in my face was being compressed. So still even now from the left side (of my face) over, it’s still completely numb. I have no feeling in my cheek or upper lip and I had just suffered a severe concussion.”
Emmett’s injuries were so gruesome that he said the team of doctors who oversaw his treatment were shocked that he still had the ability to move his eye or even see.
“I had a team of doctors,” he said.
“I had a plastic surgeon, I had an ear, nose and throat specialist, and I had an ophthalmologist – and just from the images that they saw, they were really concerned. Even breaking the bones on the orbital floor and the lateral orbital the bone could’ve punctured the eye or it could have been protruding, like popping out of my socket.
“When they saw me and they could see I could move my eye, they were pretty surprised. They kept telling me how lucky I was that I could see, for one, and that I could control my eye without it popping out.”
That the 37-year-old was able to even return to fighting 13 months later is a win in itself, but the fact that Emmett has bounced back from such a major setback to record five wins in a row – over quality opponents such as Michael Johnson, Mirsad Bektić, Shane Burgos, Dan Ige, and most recently Calvin Kattar – is wildly impressive.
Emmett, who made his UFC debut back in May 2016, is confident that he can extend his streak by recording the most important win of his career on Sunday.
“This fight is everything, winning is everything to me,” the Sacramento local said.
“When I started doing mixed martial arts, my goal was to fight for the UFC – the biggest platform in the (MMA) world – and become a UFC champion. I’m one win away from winning my first world title in the UFC. So it’s everything to me.
“That’s why everything I’ve done in my life and in my athletic career, it’s been in preparation for this moment. I’m nine days away from winning my first UFC world title.”
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However, standing in his way is the No. 2 ranked featherweight contender in Yair Rodríguez.
Since returning from a six-month suspension for failing to notify USADA of his whereabouts and being unavailable for drug testing, Rodríguez – 14-3-1 in his professional MMA career – has pushed himself into title contention on the back of two impressive performances over top contenders.
The 30-year-old’s last appearance earned him a first-round TKO victory over two-time UFC title challenger Brian Ortega which followed an extremely competitive comeback fight against former featherweight champion and current No. 1 contender Max Holloway, which Rodríguez lost via unanimous decision.
Emmett – 18-2 in his professional MMA career – is under no illusion as to the challenge posed by his Mexican opponent, but is extremely confident he is equipped with the skills and has put in the work necessary to overcome this toughest of tests.
“I always just focus on myself and what I’m capable of with my strengths,” he said.
“If the best me shows up on fight night, no one in the world can beat me. So that’s just what we focus on is what I’m good at.”
Emmett has enlisted the help of his teammates and friends throughout his training camp to try and emulate Rodríguez’s unusual fighting style the best they can in order to try and combat the former Ultimate Fighter winner’s unique stand-up game.
“When you fight someone you bring someone in to emulate them, but it’s tough because no one can ever totally emulate who you’re fighting and especially with Yair because he’s so dynamic and elusive and brings a different form of striking to the game,” Emmett said.
“I’m seeing a lot of different stuff this camp, like I’m training with Andre Fili who has the same body style (as Yair), Slava Borshchev, he’s a lightweight in the UFC and previously a world champion kickboxer. He’s throwing a lot of stuff at me that I might see in the fight. I’m training with a lot of Muay Thai fighters and some taekwondo fighters.
“We’ve watched a lot of film on Yair, and I feel like we’ve had the best look we can possibly get from my training partners. I’m more than ready, I’ve been ready for this moment for a long time.”
Emmett hopes that his extended training camp and previous experience fighting in a different time zone will hold him in good stead when he steps into the octagon next Sunday at Perth’s RAC Arena.
“This has been a long camp, they announced this fight quite a while ago. So I’ve been in the gym since well before we came out here to Australia prepping for it,” he said.
“I made my (UFC) featherweight debut in Poland. We only went out a few days early for that and I feel like I acclimated fairly quick. I also made my UFC debut in the Netherlands, in Rotterdam, on five days’ notice so that was challenging, but it went according to plan.
“This time we got out here a week ago which was nice because we came from Northern California where it’s winter right now, so it’s really cold back home. Then we came into this beautiful weather over here and the climates warm, just how I like it. Just acclimating to the 16 hour time difference, it was a little challenging at first, but that’s why we came out so early this time to just kind of fully adjust to that.
“Now everything’s just going according to plan and I feel better and better each day. I still have a little over a week till the fight so I’m just peeking at the right moment. The fans are going to be in for something special on fight night.”
The former WCFC lightweight champion says he and his wife have loved their time in Australia so far and can’t wait to hopefully return sometime soon.
“We’re staying down in South Freo. We’re just going to the coffee shops and the beaches,” Emmett said.
“My wife and I are like, man, we got to move out here. We got to we got to buy a house out here. We could get used to this. I think it’s just the people, everyone is just so kind and nice.
“You spark up conversations with random people and everyone’s willing to help out or point us in the right direction… Back home, everyone’s in such a rush, everyone’s so busy – whereas I feel like out here everyone’s nice and no matter what you do, they’re just willing to help.”
Should Emmett get his hand raised in this Sunday’s co-main event, the first thing he plans on doing in celebration of securing his first UFC championship belt is head to some local restaurants and cafes to tuck into some local cuisine.
“I’ve been seeing all the great food, the food looks amazing,” he said.
“I can’t wait till after my win, and I can kind of go down and start rewarding myself cause I’m the biggest foodie. I’m really looking forward to that.”
A victory over Rodríguez this weekend would also mean that Emmett’s next opponent would be Australia’s own Alexander Volkanovski in a clash for the undisputed UFC featherweight title, a challenge he believes he is more than up for.
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it but Volkanovski is the current pound for pound number one, he’s the featherweight champion and undefeated in the UFC,” Emmett said.
“He’s a great champion and he’s seems like an all around great guy, but I think him and I stylistically matchup so well.
“Everyone’s taller than me. I think when Volkanovski and I fight that he will be the first person I’m taller than, so I’m looking forward to that task after I get a win (this Sunday).”
