Josh Watson isn’t disillusioned. He knows who he is and acknowledges the sand in the hourglass is running out on a combat sports career with ups and downs.
There are could’ves and should’ves, but he’s at peace, especially after what happened Feb. 18 in Albuquerque, N.M. Perhaps a swan song fight in front of his home city of Portland, Maine, or his adopted home of Las Vegas will be the cherry on top of a satisfying adventure. But everything else Watson thinks will pale in comparison to the vindication he felt when he toppled the ex-NFLer.
“I have one fight camp left in my body, but I have tons of fights left in my heart,” Watson told MMA Junkie two days after the fight, his voice raspy, presumably from the celebration that ensued when he knocked out former NFL player and UFC fighter Greg Hardy.
Watson, 40, returned to work in the Las Vegas bar industry last week, with a smile on his face and perhaps a little more notoriety from his coworkers. Oh, and he might have a broken arm. That’s not new, though. Watson says he suspects he broke it in training camp. When he gets his other few injuries examined at the doctor’s this week, he’ll “ask about it.”
After the knockout, Watson saw his face everywhere. His name? Not so much. Many of the posts and headlines only mentioned Hardy, not Watson. But again, Watson understands.
“It’s funny because all of my friends are like, ‘It’s kind of funny because all I see is Greg Hardy’s ugly-ass face and how Greg Hardy got slept.’ They’re like, ‘They need to say Greg Hardy got slept by Josh Watson,’ all the headlines,” Watson said.
Did you fail to catch #KnuckleMania3?
As seen on #FITE last Friday, Josh Watson knocked out Greg Hardy in the second round. pic.twitter.com/b7EkUIoUGQ
— FITE (@FiteTV) February 22, 2023
Being overlooked was a major part of what has made this so special for Watson. While people around BKFC had his back, the general public was largely unaware of who he was prior. That changed with a series of punches. Watson found it extra satisfying considering who it came against, but the main reason might be different than the general public.
“I remember watching Greg Hardy on UFC’s Contender Series,” Watson said. “I hated him from Day 1. I remember even posting on social media, ‘I wish I was 10 years younger, because I’d smash this fool.’ I hate seeing him get opportunities off of a name. … He didn’t look good. He just had that luxury of not having to work. He’s an athlete. I can’t take that away from him. He doesn’t have to jump through the same hoops everybody else does.
“People that have that, ‘I have to work to support for my family,’ and they also try to make it – those are the true fighters because they are fighting everyday. People who come out of the NFL and have a million dollars with hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, they have the ability to train every single day at the best places without having to worry about work and can recover. Those people to me are more annoying because they already have it. They’re trying to take it away from the people who are fighting for it.”
Competitive fighting has always been part of his life for 16 years, though he admits he’s been in and out of it over that time. Watson says one time, he sold approximately $17,000 worth of tickets at a local show in Portland, Maine in 2011 and gained some buzz. UFC matchmaker at the time Joe Silva told him to drop to middleweight, win a fight, and he’d get a shot. But the shot never came.
Life things got in the way – but they’re also what provided him with this opportunity. Days before Watson received the offer to fight Hardy, he stepped away from a recent job promotion when the wear and tear became too much.
“Tuesday, I stepped down from my position and I was just relieved,” Watson said. “I was just like, so stress relieved. The next day, I was offered this fight, and I was like, ‘Holy karma.’ If I was still doing what I was doing, I would’ve had to deny it because I wouldn’t have been able to train properly. It was so, so, so weird how it worked out like that.”
The dominoes are falling into play. With one fight left in the tank, Watson hopes the recent victory sets him up for a dream-come-true send off.
“I’ve been chasing to kind of have that ‘ride off in the sunset’ kind of retirement fight,” Watson said. “They need to pass bareknuckle in Vegas or they need to have it in Massachusetts or something, so I can have a fight either here or back home in front of friends and family. As soon as they do that and I have a fight there, I can completely retire from the sport, just because I’m old as sh*t.”
‘Holy karma’: How Josh Watson capitalized on chance to knock out Greg Hardy and why it meant so much