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Josh Emmett had already seen his devastating knockout of Bryce Mitchell seemingly hundreds of times, but the stunning finish found new life in recent months.
Back in January, Mitchell landed in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons after he debuted his new podcast and decided that was the right time to reveal he was a Nazi sympathizer by defending Adolf Hitler and denying the Holocaust happened. His comments exploded, with UFC CEO Dana White slamming Mitchell and calling him “literally one of the dumbest human beings.”
As much as White was disgusted by Mitchell’s opinion, he added he wouldn’t actually discipline the fighter, but instead said “for all of you that hate Bryce Mitchell, you get to see him hopefully get his ass whooped on global television.”
That’s when Emmett’s UFC 296 one-punch demolition that separated Mitchell from his consciousness went viral again.
“I saw that he was trending and of course, I see all that stuff when he goes on podcasts and things,” Emmett told MMA Fighting. “People are tagging me ‘Josh, you did this to him.’ Like I always said, Mitchell—the interactions that I’ve had with the guy and I just saw him again in Vegas when I was out there last week, he’s been nothing but respectful to me. I treat people how they treat me. He’s treated me really well, I treat him well.
“I do believe obviously with some of things that he said, he just has to be careful what he says because he has such a big platform.”
While he never directly apologized for his comments, Mitchell eventually conceded that Hitler “did a lot of evil things” and said “a lot of people died in the Holocaust and that’s a fact.”
It certainly doesn’t absolve Mitchell for what he said previously and Emmett knew his former opponent might not ever live down the humiliation from the comments he made, which is why that knockout suddenly became relevant again.
In fact, Emmett was even reminded about a fan Q&A he conducted years earlier that was somehow discovered after Mitchell’s podcast comments made the rounds.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Emmett said. “I did an [Ask Me Anything] on Reddit I want to say, like, six years ago and someone was asking me if there was anyone in any time period or history, who would you want to fight? I said I would love to fight Hitler and knock his ass out and then somehow the internet found that and put all this stuff together. It was just wild.
“The internet is undefeated. Again that started that knockout again. He never gets to hear the end of it.”
Welp, time to re-book Josh Emmett v. Bryce Mitchell. Honestly, don’t even bother getting a commission involved. Just let Josh improve upon his previous work. pic.twitter.com/14oDQlTSnm
— David McDonald (@ireworkings) January 30, 2025
As much as Emmett condemns what Mitchell said back in January, he doesn’t hold any personal ill will towards the Arkansas native because they’ve been cordial enough with each other that he’s not going to try to build some inauthentic animosity between them now.
The knockout was probably going to haunt Mitchell forever anyways, but that highlight-reel finish is inescapable at this point.
If anything, Emmett just wished the UFC actually embraced it more.
“It’s non-stop,” Emmett said. “No matter what, it’s like even everything I post on X or whenever they’ll do the GIF, people are making different [edits] and I feel for Bryce, too. Because I know he sees it. Any time he posts something, people are tagging me in it. It’s something that’s just been going on it’s been 14 months, 15 months. I see it every day, every other day. I’m seeing people post about it.
“But for some reason, the UFC doesn’t promote that knockout. They’ll show everyone else’s knockout but they won’t show that one. I’m like what in the hell? I’ll just have the internet go off making the viral moments and things like that.”
Emmett, who returns to action on Saturday for a main event showdown against Lerone Murphy at UFC Vegas 105, doesn’t know why he hasn’t seen the UFC make a bigger deal about that knockout, although the dramatic way that Mitchell crumbled to the canvas and then stayed there for several moments might play some part in it.
Still, Emmett wishes he could see his stunning knockout played right alongside other iconic moments from the octagon, which definitely includes Max Holloway putting Justin Gaethje to sleep with a jaw dropping punch back at UFC 300.
“I feel like they could show the knockout, him being down,” Emmett said. “Maybe obviously don’t show what happened after the fact. When Max had that same knockout against Gaethje, it’s on ESPN, it’s everywhere. The world sees it. They keep showing over and over again and I’m like my knockout was similar if not more devastating. Just don’t show the part where he’s having that seizure.”
