Josh Emmett competed in the main event of UFC on Fox 28, suffering a second round knockout loss to Jeremy Stephens.
The featherweight star didn’t just suffer a loss on that night, but was also handed a plethora of injuries from the elbow strikes landed by Stephens.
“They did another CT scan because the Orlando regional hospital would not send the CT scan to them or to my doctor. They did the scan and they admitted me right away. I needed emergency surgery. They took me in an ambulance to perform another surgery,” he said on The MMA Hour. “My lateral orbital was fractured, my orbital wall, my maxillary sinus — that’s like my cheek — it was completely encaved. I had my nasal bone fractured and my zygomatic arch was broken as well, with a few other fractures in the face. It was impinging the main muscle in my eye, which was disturbing the movement of my eye. Also, the nerve in my face was being compressed. So still even now from the left side [of my face] over, it’s still completely numb. I have no feeling in my cheek or upper lip and I had just suffered a severe concussion.”
Emmett wound up having surgery to repair some of the injuries, spending five days in the hospital before getting released.
A recovering Emmett would like to start training again later this month, but only of his doctor clears the fighter first.
“I’m hoping to ease back into things by June. I’ll give it another month or so and then try some kind of movement or test out how I’m feeling when I pick up the intensity a little,” he said. “Obviously, there will be no impact still. I just got off the phone with the surgeon today because they did another CT scan. They said everything is healing well. It’s not fully healed yet but they anticipate that I can be back doing some light drills by June, so we’ll give it a shot then.”
There is no word yet on when the fighter could get back in the Octagon, but more should be known as his injuries continue healing up.
