Koscheck unafraid of uphill climb
In a UFC welterweight division where one loss can set you back a year or more in a title quest, Josh Koscheck’s challenge over the next two months is a risk few contenders would be willing to take.
Koscheck was already in camp for the main event of the Dec. 10 card against Yoshiyuki Yoshida, a judo specialist, when he got the call on Oct. 13 that his rival, Diego Sanchez, had torn rib cartilage in training and was asked if he wanted to replace him 12 days later against Thiago Alves on the company’s debut show in the Chicago area.
He got the news, tested himself with one hard sparring session that afternoon to see where he stood, and within hours, agreed to the fight.
And instead of taking the match with Alves and pulling out of the Dec. 10 fight, Koscheck asked to do both.
The Sanchez-Alves winner had been promised the next title shot against the winner of the Jan. 31 match between champion Georges St. Pierre and lightweight champion B.J. Penn for St. Pierre’s belt.
Koscheck, in replacing Sanchez, was not promised a title shot with a win because by taking the fight with Yoshida, he couldn’t lose that one without being derailed. If he wins both, a title shot is all but guaranteed.
"I actually had kind of a feeling a month, or a month-and-a-half ago that one of those two (Alves or Sanchez) could get hurt, and I’ve been in the gym training really hard for my fight in December," said Koscheck.
"I just had to change a couple of things in the last week. I’m ready to fight and in great shape. I plan on fighting both fights. I plan on coming out of the first fight healthy and fighting Yoshida and having a good six weeks."
Koscheck was at 192 pounds when the call came, but changed his diet up and as of a few days ago was at 182, easy shooting distance to the 170-pound limit. He expects to be up to 187 when he gets in the cage, but that’s still smaller than Alves, who is known for significant weight-cutting and going into the cage at 195 to 200 pounds.
"I’ve fought bigger guys than him," he said. "Dustin Hazelett was 6-foot-2. Georges St. Pierre is a big 170-pounder. I fight guys that size in our gym, Nate Moore, Phil Baroni and Trevor Prangley, so I’m well- prepared."
What will be interesting is the public reaction to Koscheck if he can pull off this double play. Koscheck, from day one, has been just about the most hated fighter by fans at almost every show he fights on.
Most of this stems from people’s first impression of him from season one of the Ultimate Fighter, when he and Bobby Southworth sprayed a water hose on Chris Leben as he was sleeping outside. To this day, no single episode of the reality show is more talked about, and the fight between Leben and Koscheck on the following episode is still the highest-rated show in the history of the series.
At the time, Koscheck (13-2) was nothing but a wrestler, but he also ranks as one of the best pure wrestlers in the history of the company.
He had a 43-0-1 at Edinboro College as a junior in 2001, winning the NCAA Division I national championship at 174 pounds. On TUF, he beat Leben by continually taking him down, frustrating an audience that largely expected Leben to get retribution by knocking him out.
Koscheck has a naturally cocky personality that plays into fan perception. Sometimes, he seems to get a kick out of the boos, goading the fans on. But with this challenge, he’s no bad guy to the UFC. If he hadn’t taken the fight, it would have been impossible to get any kind of a decent replacement at such a late date.
Given the schedule he’s undertaking, if he comes out of it unscathed, for as much of a bad first television impression he made on most fans, they may see him in a new light.
"I’ve had to fight on short notice before," noted the 30-year-old, who trains at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose. This is nothing new to me. I’ve been competing since I’m five years old.
"The way I see it, it’s a short notice fight for him (Alves) and he has a lot to prepare for," said Koscheck. "I’m not Diego Sanchez. I’m Josh Koscheck, and I’m a lot better than Diego Sanchez."
Alves (15-3) is coming off six straight wins, including stopping both Karo Parisyan and Matt Hughes in the second round. The Brazlian, who just turned 25, began fighting bareknuckle no holds barred Vale Tudo events at the age of 17, and was fighting Muay Thai two years prior.
Alves’ last loss, on June 28, 2006, was to Jon Fitch, who is Koscheck’s teammate and frequent training partner. But Alves' reputation as a fighter exploded when he devastated two-time former champion Hughes, a legend of the sport, battering him standing en route to a stoppage on June 7, in London, England.
"That was a bad strategy for Matt Hughes," said Koscheck. "I don’t know what he was thinking. It was one of the worst strategies in UFC history.
I’ve been going back to my roots. He’s not fighting Matt Hughes, Karo Parisyan or Diego Sanchez. I have way better wrestling than those guys."
Most fighters don’t like to talk about anything past their next challenge, but Koscheck freely says he hopes St. Pierre beats Penn because he’s looking for retribution.
In many ways, St. Pierre’s win over Koscheck on August 25, 2007, in Las Vegas, was the most impressive of the former's career, because he beat Koscheck via decision by outwrestling him. In hindsight, that loss can be attributed to overconfidence. The one edge Koscheck had in every previous fight is nobody can touch him when it's wrestling to wrestling. Nobody had taken him down, and with the quickness in his shots, with only a few exceptions, every time he’s gone for a takedown, he’s completed it.
St. Pierre, on the other hand, had no competitive wrestling pedigree, even though he had shown to be a good takedown guy, and even better at stuffing others.
Koscheck trained heavily in stand-up, and ignored the wrestling, figuring that aspect of the game was in the bag. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Even so, what many forget about St. Pierre’s win was that, yes, he beat a national champion wrestler at his own strength, but it was a close fight. It came down to one move, a takedown Koscheck attempted in round three that St. Pierre stuffed and landed on top. Had Koscheck completed the takedown, he might have maintained a top position and gotten the decision, since had won the second round.
"I think my fighting style has changed a lot since George St-Pierre.
Mentally, I was a little not there. I didn’t work very much on my wrestling back then. I’ve become more of a complete fighter. It’s one of the lessons I learned from the loss."
