Josh Emmett will be headlining a UFC card once again.
Emmett, who has not headlined an event since his stoppage loss to Jeremy Stephens in 2018, is set to face Calvin Kattar in the main event of UFC Austin. It’s a very fun fight on paper and for Emmett, when he got the fight offer, he was immediately excited for the matchup.
“I was excited, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” Emmett said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I fought in December of last year, I was healthy, I wanted to fight in March or April and nothing was panning out for me. It started to seem like I would have to fight back again and I didn’t want to, but at the end of the day, if that is all that was offered to me I would do it. They then offered me Calvin Kattar and I’m excited, I’m fighting forward and it’s a big fight, he’s a great fighter, and then we are going to headline the UFC Austin card. It’ll be a good fight for the fans. This is what I have been working for.”
Once Emmett got into training camp to prepare for Kattar, he wanted another body to work with, especially after Andre Fili had just fought. With Fili not being ready to do hard sparring rounds, Emmett called his old opponent and someone who also fought Kattar in Shane Burgos to train with him.
Emmett thought Burgos could help him prepare for Kattar better than anyone and after spending some time together, the Team Alpha Male product believes it paid dividends.
“I’m always working with Andre Fili, we are always main training partners and he had a fight and I’m in the thick of my camp and I needed hard rounds,” Emmett explained. “He’s just easing back in it so we were thinking about different bodies that are big… and we were thinking out loud and I’m like what about Burgos? My boxing coach hit up Burgos and he said he was down to come help. He’s a good dude, he comes from a great team, and through Instagram, we message each other. I hit him up and we flew him and his little brother out. It’s just a good look, Calvin and Shane are tall featherweights, long reach, so I just thought it was the perfect style to emulate Calvin Kattar’s fight style.”
With Josh Emmett being confident he has Calvin Kattar’s style down, he believes he can become the first person to finish the fourth-ranked featherweight for the first time in the UFC. Emmett knows his power is different and he’s confident he can prove that in the main event of UFC Austin.
“I feel like Calvin’s strong attributes is he’s tough as hell and is super durable and technically sound. I feel like I can do it all, also and I feel like I possess a different type of power than the featherweights, so we will see,” Emmett said. “But, I plan on getting my hand raised regardless of where the fight goes, I don’t care if it’s a knockout, TKO, submission, or decision I’m doing everything I can to get my hand raised.”
Should Emmett do as he says and gets the stoppage win over Kattar he believes that cements him as the next title contender.
“I want to be a world champion and I have to be able to beat Calvin Kattar to do so… I believe this is a title eliminator for sure but at the end of the day I’m not looking past Calvin Kattar,” Emmett concluded.
Do you think Josh Emmett will finish Calvin Kattar at UFC Austin?