Kevin Vallejos wants 'dirty, bloody war' with Josh Emmett at UFC Fight Night 269

LAS VEGAS – Kevin Vallejos is not expecting to come out of the UFC Fight Night 269 main event unscathed.

Vallejos (17-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) get a big opportunity on Saturday when he takes on longtime featherweight contender Josh Emmett (19-6 MMA, 10-6 UFC) in a five-round headliner at Meta APEX (Paramount+), and the significance of the opportunity is not lost on him.

"It's a huge challenge and I love fights like this," Vallejos told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday's media day. "For me, I'm a huge fan of Josh so it's also an honor to be able to fight him, who is such a legend in the sport."

At 23, Vallejos is on the youngest side of the UFC main event with the biggest age discrepancy in history. Emmett, 41, might be much his older, but Vallejos doesn't think he's lost his touch.

Vallejos thinks Emmett still has serious power and plenty of durability, so he envisions this one going all five rounds with some physical sacrifices made on both ends in the process.

"I do think that I can knock him out – I'm not going to say that I can't," Vallejos said. "This is MMA. Anything can happen. He can knock me out. I can knock him out. But to be honest, I feel like this is going to be a dream come true in the sense that I want to have that dream of just having a dirty, blood war for five rounds where we just kill each other. That's what I'm pretty much expecting."

If Vallejos gets the job done, he will likely springboard in the top 15 of the weight class and set up more big fights. He can't look beyond this one, though, because he expects to be out some time recovering from whatever damage is taken.

"If for some reason I come out this fight with any injuries I would want to keep fighting, but I don't think taking a break would be bad at all," Vallejos said. "I feel like my body probably will need it after this fight."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Kevin Vallejos wants 'bloody war' with Josh Emmett at UFC Vegas 114