diff --git a/utils/neuralmagic/sparsification_manager.py b/utils/neuralmagic/sparsification_manager.py
index 546e94476ec6..0e9fca2b769e 100644
--- a/utils/neuralmagic/sparsification_manager.py
+++ b/utils/neuralmagic/sparsification_manager.py
@@ -601,7 +601,7 @@ def maybe_create_sparsification_manager(
 
         # reconstruct ToggleableModelEMA from state dictionary
         if ckpt["ema"]:
-            ckpt["ema"] = load_ema(ckpt["ema"], model)
+            ckpt["ema"] = load_ema(ckpt["ema"], model).ema
 
         return sparsification_manager