![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/01kknfc6jj663q4etq00.jpg\" "\\"Josh")
<\/p>\nThe UFC heads back to its home base of the Meta APEX this Saturday night following last weekend’s UFC 326 event. This week’s offering is headlined by a featherweight bout between Josh Emmett and Kevin Vallejos in a five-round non-title fight from Las Vegas to top a 14-fight card.<\/p>\n
Emmett (19-6 MMA, 10-6 UFC) turned 41 last October and has been competing under the UFC banner since 2016. Emmett told reporters this week he is the furthest from contemplating retirement, despite back-to-back losses to Youssef Zalal (18-5 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) and Lerone Murphy (17-0 MMA, 9-0-1 UFC) on the backburner of a 16-month absence from the Octagon.<\/p>\n
With a near-decade of experience in the UFC, Emmett’s goals remain lofty, but attainable. His biggest, though, is winning a UFC title.<\/p>\n
Josh Emmett, Kevin Vallejos Take Different Paths Entering UFC Vegas 114<\/p>\n
Oct 4, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, UNITED STATES; Josh Emmett (red gloves) before the fight against Youssef Zalal (blue gloves) during UFC 320 at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
“I have the same mindset,” Emmett told reporters<\/a>. “I still want to be a world champion. I’m going to be a world champion. But I just have to go out there, be me, get my hand raised, and then we’ll slowly work our way back to the top. I’m on a one-way trip to the top, and I don’t care who’s coming with me.”<\/p>\n Emmett’s self-belief is not a fear of desperation or timing potentially going to run its course on his professional career. It is much greater, he said.<\/p>\n Simply put, it is process-oriented.<\/p>\n “Kevin’s great \u2013\u00a0he’s a good fighter,” Emmett said. “He’s not going to show me anything I haven’t seen before. I just have to keep my chin down, hands up, move, take it minute-by-minute, round-by-round, and the finish will come.”<\/p>\n The 24-year-old Vallejos (17-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) said he respects Emmett’s abilities but isn’t taking him lightly. Nor does he want to rush a rise to the top of the UFC’s featherweight rankings.<\/p>\n “He got into the company a lot older, so he became a champion a lot older,” Vallejos said of Alexander Volkanovski in an interview with Hablemos MMA i<\/a>n Spanish. “I came in with 23 years, so I have the time to become champion at 27, 28 and be able to stay at the top for several years and then see what I do with my life. But I’d like to have a good amount of experience at 27, so I can be fighting for a title and stay at the top.”<\/p>\n A win over someone of Emmett’s caliber could certainly be the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 booster he has been looking for.<\/p>\n But only time will tell.<\/p>\n
![\"UFC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763811845_151_01jvgehcxz6vdvc8jp3w.jpg\" "\\"UFC")
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