This past Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 284, the interim featherweight title was on the line. Yair Rodriguez (15-3) was looking to grab onto interim gold as was Josh Emmett (18-3) who was also looking to continue his five-fight winning steak on Saturday night.
When the fight started, Yair Rodriguez was really controlling range and punishing Josh Emmett with kicks. However, you always felt that Emmett was a shot away from changing the entire fight around and that’s what happened. Late in the first round, Emmett rocked Rodriguez with a huge shot.
He finished the round on top of Rodriguez. While Emmett had that big moment, you still had the feeling that Rodriguez had the advantage entering the second round. Emmett couldn’t get anything going in the second and he was getting eaten up by Rodriguez.
Rodriguez landed a knee that Emmett ate and used to land a takedown. However, shortly after, Rodriguez locked Emmett up in a triangle choke. Emmett was forced to tap and suffered his first loss in the UFC since 2018.
What’s next after UFC 284?
Josh Emmett has been asking for a title shot for a while now and unfortunately his title dreams came crashing down at UFC 284. Emmett can of course get back to a title shot, but it’s going to require a little work to get back to that spot.
Now that he’s lost and his winning streak has snapped, what’s next? Well, there’s an opponent also coming off a loss that’s just a couple of spots behind him that makes perfect sense. I think the fight to make is Josh Emmett – Giga Chikadze.
Chikadze hasn’t fought since losing to Calvin Kattar last year. He still looks like a guy who could challenge for a UFC title one day. This would be a fight fans dream pairing these two ferocious strikers against each other. It’s an excellent fight for Emmett that would up his stock with fans should he win.