At UFC Philadelphia, Josh Emmett delivered an undeniable Knockout of the Year contender, flattening Michael Johnson in the third round of their featherweight contest. Surprisingly, however, his jaw-dropping knockout victory didn’t earn him a post-fight bonus.
Like many fans, he’s still scratching his head about that.
“Everyone’s hitting me up like, ‘you didn’t get the bonus?’ I’m like, ‘no.’ They’re surprised, they thought it was a for sure thing,” he said on the latest episode of BJPenn.com Radio. “People are telling me it’s one of the best knockouts of the year. Then I see the UFC puts up [a social media post with the question ‘who had the best knock out in March’ and it was [Anthony] Pettis, [Jorge] Masvidal, [Justin] Gaethje and me. They all got bonuses, I didn’t.”
“How can you have the best knockout of the year so far… it was the cleanest too [and not get a bonus]” he continued. “Don’t get me wrong, all those knockouts and finishes were great, but they also had to follow up. I hit him once and he’s out before he even starts falling, you know what I mean? I can just walk away. That happened with the [Ricardo] Lamas fight too. I feel like that’s a lot more impressive than following up. That’s a knockout to me. It’s super disappointing.”
As Josh Emmett suggests, this isn’t the first time he’s delivered a bonus-worthy performance in the UFC — yet he’s still never received a post-fight award.
“I don’t know what else I have to do,” he said. “I’ve never got a bonus and I feel like I can make an argument to a handful of fights that I shoulda got bonuses and I continue to get stiffed. I really don’t know how to get one, it’s pretty disappointing. I’m gonna have to choke somebody.
Luckily, Josh Emmett has a phalanx of dedicated fans eager to help his cause on social media. He’s hopeful that if these fans are loud enough, UFC President Dana White might just reconsider.
“I really don’t know what I have to do,” he said. “I’m hoping Dana White can — he’s probably seeing all this, I see people tagging him all over the place, on Twitter and Instagram and things like that, about me not getting it and so I know he’s seeing it — I hope he can make it right. I’m still trying to stay positive and maybe he’ll come through. You’ve seen it in the past, he’ll just say ‘hey, we made a mistake, here’s a bonus Josh.’ I’m wishful for that but we’ll see.”
Do you think Josh Emmett deserved a bonus for his massive knockout win over Michael Johnson?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 4/10/2019.