Rob Emerson

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 The Ultimate Fighter
4 UFC
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Rob "The Saint" Emerson (born July 30, 1981) is an American professional mixed martial artist and was a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5.

He stands 5 ft. 9 in. (175 cm) tall and fights in the lightweight division (155 lbs.).

Emerson currently fights as a lightweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Rob Emerson made his professional mixed martial arts debut on June 29, 2002 against former UFC lightweight champion, Jens Pulver. Even though it was the first bout since Pulver had vacated his lightweight championship, Emerson managed to go the distance with the much more experienced Pulver, eventually losing via unanimous decision.

Nearly six months later, Emerson dropped his second professional bout, again by unanimous decision. That loss was followed by a split decision loss to Javier Vasquez at a Shooto USA event in November of 2003.

In April of 2004, Emerson faced Dokonjonosuke Mishima at a DEEP event, losing via unanimous decision.

Emerson finally picked up the first win of his career at Total Combat 3, when he submitted Justin Berkley with an arm triangle choke in the second round.

After a unanimous decision win over Joe Camacho in his next bout, Emerson dropped his next two, losing via majority decision to Randy Velarde and then split decision to future TUF 2 and UFC competitor, Melvin Guillard.

In September of 2005, Emerson picked up the first victory in what was to be a four fight win streak that lasted until 2007. He scored consecutive TKO victories over Julian Samaniego and Jamie Schmidt and then consecutive decision victories over Takafumi Ito and Kenji Arai in Pancrase to even up his record at 6-6.

The Ultimate Fighter

In late 2006/early 2007, Emerson was chosen as one of 16 lightweight fighters to compete in The Ultimate Fighter Season 5's lightweight tournament.

Picked fifth by BJ Penn, Emerson faced off against Jens Pulver's second pick, Nate Diaz on episode 3. In a quality fight, both fighters traded heavy strikes in the first round. The second round was all Diaz however, as he used his sublime ground game to submit Emerson with a rear naked choke. UFC President, Dana White was very impressed with the fight and how both fighters performed.

In episode 5, Emerson was reinstated in the competition after Gabe Ruediger failed to make weight for his fight. He faced off against Corey Hill in the sixth episode and the bout was called a draw after two rounds. In the third round both fighters were timid but Emerson appeared to get the better of it. However the judges saw it differently and awarded Hill the unanimous decision, once again eliminating Emerson from the competition.

At The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale, Emerson faced semi-finalist on the show, Gray Maynard. Maynard dominated the majority of the fight and in the second round landed a slam takedown that aggravated a pre-existing rib injury of Emerson, forcing him to tap out. However, in a strange turn of events, Maynard was also deemed to have been sent unconscious by the slam and the fight was ruled as a no contets as both fighters were unable to continue.

UFC

Emerson made his first post-TUF UFC appearance at UFC 81 on February 2, 2008. He faced wily Japanese competitor, Keita Nakamura on the shows undercard. In a tight contest that went the full three rounds, Emerson squeaked out a split decision victory.

The win earned Emerson main card duties at UFC 87. He faced TUF 5 runner-up, Manny Gamburyan. The bout was a quick one as Emerson captialized on Gamburyan's wide open stand-up, hammering him with a punch and finishing him on the ground to earn the knockout win at just 12 seconds of round 1. The victory earned Emerson the $60,000 "Knockout of the Night" honors.

At UFC Fight Night 17 in February of 2009, Emerson faced Kurt Pellegrino on the show's undercard. After taking the first round, Emerson was taken down by Pellegrino in the second. From there Pellergrino moved to Emerson's back and cinched up a rear naked choke to force the tap midway through the round.