Report: Emmett to appeal controversial KO loss to Stephens

Josh Emmett will appeal the controversial second-round KO loss he suffered to Jeremy Stephens at Saturday's UFC on FOX 28 in Orlando to the Florida State Boxing Commission, the featherweight's team told MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani shortly after the event's conclusion.

The 32-year-old Emmett appeared to have been grazed by an illegal knee to the head while downed during the finishing sequence, in addition to eating several elbows that a cageside Daniel Cormier believed to have hit him in the back of the noggin. The left hook that dropped Emmett and the last few elbows that put him out were perfectly legal, but referee Dan Miragliotta didn't intervene or warn Stephens for any allegedly illicit blows at any point during the fight-ending salvo.

According to reporter Damon Martin, Stephens has since claimed Miragliotta's prefight explanation of the unified rules led him to believe he was allowed to strike a kneeling Emmett.

Emmett will likely vie for the fight's result to be overturned to a no-contest.