Josh Emmett has accomplished plenty at featherweight and now it might be time to move back up.
Currently mired in a 1-5 slump, including three straight losses, Emmett finds himself at a crossroads. The 41-year-old veteran has failed to make it out of the first round in his past two fights, most recently falling to Kevin Vallejos in the UFC Vegas 114 main event this past March, and is considering a major change to stop his skid.
“I’ll definitely fight before the end of the year,” Emmett told MMA Fighting’s José Youngs. “I’m enjoying some things that I’ve wanted to do for a while, so I’m doing that right now. Maybe anywhere from October to early December and I might go back up to 155. Just that the cut to ‘45 is just crazy.
“It’s so hard and I think it is affecting my performances. … I think my next fight, you guys will see me back at lightweight.”
Emmett fought at 155 pounds several times at the start of his career, winning a couple of regional championships and compiling a 9-0 record before joining the UFC in 2016. He won his first two fights for the promotion and then dropped a split decision to Desmond Green, which prompted a drop to featherweight. At 145 (and one catchweight bout in which Emmett was over the limit), Emmett won six of his next seven fights and earned a shot at an interim title at UFC 284. However, he was submitted by Yair Rodriguez and has picked up just one victory since.
Returning to lightweight, Emmett knows the competition won’t be any easier.
“I’m a fan of the sport and I think the average male size is anyone from the featherweight to the lightweight, so I feel like those are the most competitive divisions,” Emmett said. “Even when I was wrestling in college, I was always in the toughest weight class. I wrestled at 157 in college, so in hindsight, I’m like, shit, I wish I was smaller or I wish I had this frame and I was a light heavyweight or a heavyweight, but I don’t. It’s super competitive, both the weight classes.”
With his MMA career likely winding down, Emmett is open to other combat sports opportunities, namely the budding RAF. Emmett is a lifelong wrestler and could easily see himself hitting the mats again in the future.
“If you could tell me that I would get paid to do a wrestling match, a six- or seven-minute wrestling match, I would do it all day, and not get punched in the face?” Emmett said. “I wrestled since I was a young child, all the way through college, and I never got a dime for wrestling. Now, if I could go wrestle on a big stage, and RAF is doing some amazing things for the sport of wrestling, and just the athletes that are involved, so it’s super sick. Yeah, sign me up.”
