Calvin Kattar on Narrow UFC Austin Defeat: ‘I Thought I Did Enough to Win the Fight’

There are always two sides to the story when a fight ends in a split decision.

Such was the case at UFC on ESPN 37, where Josh Emmett captured a contentious split verdict against Calvin Kattar in the evening’s featherweight main event at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, on Saturday night. For his part, Emmett was in disbelief that the fight was as close as it was, but he was nonetheless thrilled to be on the right side of the scorecards.

Kattar, meanwhile, is left to lament what might have been. “The Boston Finisher” worked behind a technical jab all night and actually outlanded his opponent in significant strikes, but it seems as though the judges valued Emmett’s more impactful offense at the end of the bout.

“I just thought I was going to get my hand raised at the end of it,” Kattar said on the ESPN+ post-fight show. “I didn’t care, we give a s—t if it’s unanimous or a split. I thought I did enough to win the fight. Josh is a class act, a tough kid. Congrats to him and his team."

Kattar adopted a technical approach throughout, but he says he never felt comfortable enough to try and coast to victory.

“There was never a point I thought I could sit back, but I thought I was edging him out, especially the longer the fight went. The fifth round, I thought I took it. I know he wanted to stand in the center and bang but I mean, that’d be cool I guess if I wasn’t up in the fight, maybe. I thought I was landing the better shots, but I’m not a judge. It went the way it did, but I thought I did enough to win the fight.”

Kattar never seemed rocked during the fight, despite Emmett landing heavy punches on multiple occasions.

“Obviously, he’s got a lot of power,” Kattar said. “You’re dealing with adversity. You’re listening to that voice telling you to get small or you tell it to shut up and get big. Just working my way through the fight, Josh presented a lot of problems as a top featherweight would do. I thought I did enough to overcome them but I guess the judges saw it another way.”

It was Kattar’s fourth consecutive headlining appearance and fourth straight five-round fight. He’s 2-2 in those outings, and the latest setback means he’ll have to go back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong. In a fight that was that close, it’s a difficult pill to swallow.

“I thought I did enough to beat a high-level caliber opponent,” Kattar said. “I just have to go back, check the tape, see what’s up. I’ve really got more questions than anything.”