Josh Emmett Disappointed Michael Johnson KO Didn’t Earn Post-Fight Bonus

Josh Emmett pulled off a spectacular knockout victory over Michael Johnson at UFC Philadelphia last week.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to earn the knockout artist a $50,000 performance bonus. Emmett has been putting on some great performances since joining the UFC’s featherweight division in 2017. However, none of them have been good enough for a bonus. After knocking out Johnson, Emmett was sure that would change.

Of course, that wasn’t the case, as Emmett left Philadelphia, once again, without one. Speaking to MMA Fighting, Emmett detailed his disappointment with how things turned out:

“As soon as I hit [Johnson] and it went down like that, I told Urijah [Faber], Danny [Castillo and Joey [Rodriguez Sr.] in the corner ‘Finally, I’m getting a bonus,’” Emmett said.

“I thought it was a shoe-in for sure. Then, I’m going backstage and, of course, the [David] Branch fight went down and he got submitted [by Jack Hermansson]. But, thats ok. I figured there’d be some type of bonus in the main event and then [Justin] Gaethje got a nice TKO or knockout or whatever you want to call it.

“So I’m like ‘For sure you have to get [a bonus].’ All of the UFC staff were like ‘You’re getting a bonus’ or ‘Have you got your bonus yet?’ Then Danny pulled it up on his phone and it didn’t go to me. I thought he was joking.

“I was like ‘There is no way.’ So, I don’t know what else I have to do. What more can I do to get a performance bonus? I’m just super disappointed with that.”

Emmett’s victory over Johnson was his first since being knocked out by Jeremy Stephens in February of last year. His knockout power makes him one of the more dangerous fighters the division has to offer. Mix that with a formidable wrestling game, “The Grim Reaper” will be a problem for opposing 145 pounders for years to come.