Josh Emmett and Edson Barboza were reportedly set to be fighting next month at UFC Fight Night Oklahoma City, but the bout never came to fruition.
That bout never did come to fruition because Emmett was both injured and on vacation at the time the fight was offered.
“When my wife and I were in Vietnam, my manager asked me, just because the UFC threw out a name, and they’re like, ‘Hey, they’re wondering if you wanted to fight Edson Barboza April 25 in Nebraska,'” Emmett said to MMA Junkie. “And at this time, I was on vacation. I was injured – that’s why I was out there – and I was thinking that was just too soon. I wasn’t even coming back to the States for another week or two. I actually just found out online. I was on the phone with my manager when this was put out there and I was asking him about possible dates, possible opponents, and then my phone was blowing up and I opened Instagram. … I was like, ‘Oh, they announced this fight,’ They never even asked me.”
Emmett, who hasn’t competed since UFC Fight Night Sacramento in July of last year, has been dealing with a series of undisclosed injuries since that encounter.
The fighter also has one fight left on his UFC contract and would like to get a new deal done with the UFC.
“I also have one fight left on my contract, so the whole thing with that is, I was saying I’ll fight anybody – it just has to make sense because from a business standpoint and what I’m trying to accomplish. If Barboza were to come down to featherweight, it’s high risk for not much of a reward. He comes down – say he beats me. Then he takes my spot, and they probably push him. For me – I win, I stay where I’m at,” says Emmett.
There is no word yet on when Emmett, who sits at #8 in the UFC Featherweight Division rankings, is going to be fighting again.
