After picking up a big win in the co main event for UFC on ESPN 11 this past Saturday, Josh Emmett (15-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC), sat down with ESPN’s Brett Okomoto, following the fight, and expressed his frustration with how the UFC and media have been pushing him.
Emmett, 35, is defying the odds after picking up a unanimous decision victory against rising talent, Shane Burgos (13-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC), in an instant fight of the year contender, after hyper-extending his right knee less than a minute into the fight.
Following the event, Emmett, was still fired up.
“I want to get closer to the title, I know I can compete with anyone in the division. I know I will be a world champion, and I want that,” Emmett said to ESPN’s Okomoto. “I’m through being the gatekeeper they thought I was.”
Okomoto followed that up by asking Emmett about some comments he had made after the fight regarding the media picking him to lose in his fight against Burgos.
“There’s politics in everything, people are super bias,” Emmett told Okomoto. “Some of the commentators, journalists, I know who they’re rooting for, thing’s like that, (and) when they vote on who they’re picking, things like that. I love it though, I’m always the underdog, so a lot of my friends and a lot of my fans (are) making big money off of me because they’re (betting on me as the underdog).
Emmett made it clear that his issue isn’t only with the media, he is also upset with how the UFC has been pushing and promoting him throughout his time with the promotion.
“I’m just frustrated with everything,” Emmett told Okomoto. “You see the people (that) the UFC wants to build up, all the people (that) they push, I see it. I feel they just keep giving me (lower ranked opponents), they don’t want me to go towards the top or they just want me to keep fighting people behind me. But, in the end I just have to go out, win fights, beat people up, and they can’t stop it. So, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, and it’ll come eventually. It’s just (going to) be a longer and harder path.”
After suffering a knee injury of some sort in the first minute of the fight, Emmett needs to get an MRI done in the coming days so that he can figure out his next move as far as fighting is concerned. He expressed that he would like to remain more active given the case that he didn’t suffer too serious of an injury during the fight.
