Josh Emmett hopes UFC keeps him active following successful return from ACL injury

LAS VEGAS – Josh Emmett is looking to make up for lost time.

The UFC featherweight contender is looking for high activity following his successful return to competition. Emmett (17-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC), who was coming off a year-and-a-half layoff due to an ACL injury, defeated Dan Ige (15-5 MMA, 7-4 UFC) via unanimous decision at Saturday’s UFC 269 event at T-Mobile Arena.

Emmett doesn’t have any specific names in mind, but hopes to get higher ranked opposition for his next outing and a high level of activity.

“I want to be as active as possible,” Emmett told reporters, including MMA Junkie, following his win. “As long as I’m injury-free, I want to fight. He landed some good calf kicks, so that knee that I had injured, it’s definitely sore, but it’s not the ACL.

“I knew he was going to land those calf kicks and target that knee, so he did a good job. But yeah, I’m ready to go. I want to get right back in there.”

As far as competing in his first fight of 2021, Emmett felt good in his outing against Ige, but admits he expected a different story.

“It’s good to be back,” Emmett said. “I told you guys I’d see you on Saturday. It is good to be back. It’s kind of funny because I thought it was going to be this crazy barnburner. (UFC president) Dana (White) did, but Dan and I just respected each other so much and the power, so it just kind of turned into a technical fight, and we stayed behind the jab. But yeah, I’m happy to be back and I’m grateful for the UFC, Dana, Sean (Shelby) and Mick (Maynard).”

To see the full interview with Emmett, check out the video above.