Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is just one day away from the upcoming UFC Vegas 114 mixed martial arts (MMA) event, which is set to go down tomorrow night (Sat., March 14, 2026) on Paramount+ from inside Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. UFC Vegas 114 features a featherweight main event between 145-pound standouts Josh Emmett and Kevin Vallejos, a five-round showdown that could shake up the division Top 15. Before we dive into the main and co-main events, which include the 115-pound collision between Top 10 strawweight contenders Amanda Lemos and Gillian Robertson, check out Andrew Richardson’s “X-Factor” breakdown for the rest of the UFC Vegas 114 main card.

Josh Emmett had a nice run earlier in his UFC career, winning nine of his first 11 fights inside the Octagon and putting together a five-fight win streak that landed him at No. 5 in the official featherweight rankings — four spots ahead of Ilia Topuria. Then came a run of bad luck, or maybe a losing battle against Father Time. Perhaps both? Whatever the case may be, Emmett has lost two straight and four of his last five, getting submitted in two of those four losses. He clearly has power, as demonstrated in his UFC 296 snuff film starring Bryce Mitchell, but that stands as his only knockout victory over the last six years. Technically speaking, Emmett is a below-average striker and only lands 35-percent of the strikes he throws. That’s worse than Mackenzie Dern (41 percent), just to give you some perspective. His nickname “CC0” was lifted from the Creative Commons Zero NFT because Emmett is one of those weird crypto-bros. That doesn’t have anything to do with his bout this weekend but it does tell me the 41 year-old Emmett is already thinking about his future after fighting, so perhaps he recognizes the end is near.

Vallejos has been an unexpected surprise and a much-needed addition to the featherweight class over the last 12 months. “El Chino” came up short against Jean Silva on Dana White’s “Contender Series” back in late 2023 then went and racked up two consecutive finishes on the regional circuit to get called back up. A second “Contender Series” stint resulted in a first-round finish over Cam Teague and it was off to the races. Vallejos registered two filthy knockouts in three trips to the Octagon, including his second-round destruction of Giga Chikadze to close out 2025 — a particularly satisfying finish considering how much trash the so-called “Ninja” was talking. The sportsbooks are expecting a similar outcome on Saturday based on the huge gap in the moneyline, reflecting the 24 year-old Argentinian’s youth and speed.

“Kevin’s great, he’s a good fighter,“ Emmett added. ”He’s not going to show me anything I haven’t seen before. I just have to keep my chin down, hands up, move, take it minute-by-minute, round-by-round, and the finish will come. I’m not going to go out there and force it. I’m just going to perform the way I know I can, and I know I will. The bonus will come for sure, we’ll probably get two. I’m just going to be myself, go out there and be calm.“ Vallejos has drawn plenty of Topuria comparisons for good reason. He moves quite like the Lightweight kingpin, feinting his way forward in an attempt to herd his opposition into his powerful right hand. His boxing fundamentals are excellent, and thus far, the only flaw on his record was a closely contested war versus Jean Silva at a mere 21 years of age.