Josh Emmett made a name in the MMA community after a vicious knockout of seasoned veteran in Ricardo Lamas after replacing Jose Aldo on short notice. The victory had him a top 5 spot from being unranked and a step up match up against extremely dangerous Jeremy Stephens.
After dropping Stephens in the first loss, Emmett suffered a controversial yet crushing loss. Stephens landed an illegal knee and followed it with two elbows ending Emmett’s night.
Emmett was taken in an Orlando Hospital immediately and thought he suffered an orbital fracture, however after a second opinion things took an unexpected turn.
“The hospital in Orlando didn’t misdiagnose me, they just didn’t catch a lot of things.” Emmett told Ariel Helwani on a recent episode of The MMA Hour.
“They just said I had a tripod fracture, so I assumed that was it. I went home and I think it was the second day that I was home in Sacramento — I was still on all the pain pills and stuff — and my wife just knew there was something wrong.”
“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.
“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.”
After a bunch of doctors examined his x-rays, Emmett claims they were shocked that he could still see and move his eye.
“I had a team of doctors,” he said. “I had a plastic surgeon, I had an ear, nose and throat specialist, and I had an ophthalmologist — and just from the images that they saw, they were really concerned. Even breaking the bones on the orbital floor and the lateral orbital the bone could’ve punctured the eye or it could have been protruding, like popping out of my socket.
“When they saw me and they could see I could move my eye, they were pretty surprised. They kept telling me how lucky I was — that I could see, for one, and that I could control my eye without it popping out.”
Emmett however is still adamant that the fight should have been stopped after Stephens landed the illegal knee. However moving on, Emmett looks to be back into training later on in June.
Read also:
UFC: Josh Emmett opens up about the possibility of fighting his teammates
UFC: Jeremy Stephens comments on his controversial knee at UFC Orlando
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