After a brutal knockout and a series of unfortunate events, Josh Emmett is back training with Team Alpha Male.

Heading into UFC on FOX 28 earlier this year Emmett was coming off the most impressive performance of his career. Unfortunately, he ran into a buzzsaw named Jeremy Stephens in Orlando, Florida, and that’s where Emmett’s troubles began.

“The general hospital in Orlando misdiagnosed me,” Emmett explained to BJPenn.com. “They just thought I had a fracture on the lateral part of my orbital [bone] and the orbital floor. Turns out there was so much more to that.

“I broke several bones like the zygomatic arch. That’s on the side of your face, like your cheek. My cheek was completely broken and pushed in, a major nerve in my face was being pressed in. The muscle that controls my eye was being pinched as well.”

When Emmett returned home to California he got the medical attention he needed. To say that Emmett is lucky is an understatement. The doctors emitted Emmett to the hospital right away and got the featherweight in for emergency surgery as soon as possible. A decision that saved his sight as well as fighting career.

“When I came back to Sacramento I went to Sutter Medical Center just because I still wasn’t feeling that great,” Emmett explained. “They did a CT scan then admitted me right away, they said I needed emergency surgery. They took me to another hospital nearby and there was a surgeon, plastic surgeon, and an ophthalmologist. Just from seeing the CT scan of me the ophthalmologist couldn’t believe I was able to move my eye. My eye really should’ve fallen out there was nothing really holding it in place.”

Emmett is a warrior in every sense of the word. Many men would’ve have balked if faced with the same amount of adversity. Not Emmett however. Not only is he back training with Team Alpha Male full time once again but the featherweight contender is looking at returning to the Octagon early next year.

“I’m hoping maybe the Spring,” The Alpha Male fighter said when asked about a timetable for his return. “I won’t really know till I get into some hard sparring and see how I feel but for the most part, I feel pretty good.”

He continued, “I’ve always wanted to fight on that March 2 card that would be the absolute earliest though. Maybe even April or May. But I’m gunning for the March 2 card.”

A returning Josh Emmett could shake the entire 145-pound division up. He was ranked in the top 10 as earlier as February.

Best of luck to Josh Emmett in his return.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/4/2018.