Koscheck will have to wait for title shot

LAS VEGAS – Josh Koscheck came into UFC 106 hoping that an impressive win would get him a title shot.

He left with the first half of the deal after a strange but highly lucrative win. But the second half will have to wait as the UFC is still going with England’s Dan Hardy as the next contender for welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.

Koscheck (16-4) finished the much-larger Anthony Johnson with a choke at 4:47 of the second round in the co-main event of UFC 106 on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in a crowd-pleasing match that took fight of the night honors.

The two fighters know each other well and had worked out several times together in the past. Both train out of San Jose, Calif., although each fighter’s main gym is in different parts of the city. Koscheck trains at the American Kickboxing Academy camp, while Johnson trains under Cung Le.

“I’ve been here for a long time, it’s been five years,” said Koscheck, who was a cast member and one of the top villains on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter” in early 2005.

“It is what it is. I don’t really care (about not getting the title shot) as long as I’m a fighter and I get paid.”

Koscheck earned $106,000 regular pay for the win and picked up an additional $140,000 in bonuses, garnering submission of the night as well as fight of the night.

He was a late replacement on this show, as he wasn’t scheduled to fight until Jan. 11. But when the Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin main event fell through, he was asked a little more than three weeks ago to face Johnson (8-3) to give the show a second top match. Johnson had just fought on Oct. 24 in Los Angeles but was unscathed in knocking out Yoshiyuki Yoshida in 41 seconds.

Koscheck, the last fighter to win a round from St. Pierre in a fight two years ago, came into the fight with a strategy to weather a first-round storm standing. He figured that Johnson would tire first and then he’d go to work in Round 2 with his wrestling and work to finish Johnson by submission, which ended up happening.

But there were some unique twists and turns as Koscheck’s plan unfolded.

The most notable twist came in the first round, when fans thought the fight may have a premature ending after Koscheck was seemingly injured by an illegal knee. After neither fighter was able to gain much of an advantage early on, Koscheck went in for a takedown. Johnson avoided it and threw a knee right to Koscheck’s face when Koscheck was down.

The near-sellout crowd of 10,529 fans booed heavily, thinking Koscheck, who was complaining about his vision, was going to bail on the fight. Koscheck said that was never the case, and that it wasn’t the knee but an eye poke a moment later that was the problem.

UFC president Dana White said that in watching the tape, they saw that one of Johnson’s fingers went in Koscheck’s eye. Koscheck took several minutes, noting that his vision was blurry, while fans booed heavily.

“I’ve had it happen to me in practice several times and it takes a few minutes before the blurriness goes away,” he said. “I was never thinking about not going on, I was just trying to make sure I got up to five minutes for the blurriness to go away.”

In the second round, Johnson twice signaled that his eye was poked, and as he was signaling the second time, Koscheck threw a hard punch, which made the crowd boo Koscheck.

After Johnson recovered, there were a series of crazy standing exchanges before Koscheck went back to his wrestling skills that made him an unbeaten NCAA champion in 2001, putting Johnson on his back.

Koscheck landed hard punches and elbows to bloody up his foe before finally sinking in the choke and getting the tap with 13 seconds left in the round.

“I was blown away by his performance,” said White. “We’ve butted heads a lot in the past, but that was a great performance.

Koscheck claimed he was going to stand and trade with Johnson before the fight. It was a decision many questioned because Johnson had what was billed as a 4-inch height advantage. Johnson was so much larger in the cage that he looked like he was in a different weight class.

Koscheck noted that Johnson’s ground game is still his weakness.

“He should start training at our camp, but he’d have to move up to 185.”

Koscheck, while being interviewed after winning, issued a challenge to Hardy, who was at ringside, to come fight in the U.S. to see who the real No. 1 contender is.

White noted that he promised the winner of the Hardy vs. Mike Swick fight last Saturday night in Manchester, England, the next shot at St. Pierre. With Johnson out of the mix, Koscheck, Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves, all of whom St. Pierre has beaten, look to be battling for the next spot in line.

“Really, I like Dan Hardy, he’s a showman,” Koscheck said. “I hope he has a great fight with St. Pierre. If it takes five, six, seven, eight or nine wins, I’ll get my shot.”

Koscheck garnered attention earlier in the week when he said he’d like to fight 10 or 12 times in 2010, far more than the usual cycle of three fights a year that most UFC fighters are on when not battling injuries.

“I’d like to fight every month, train three weeks and then fight,” he said. “It’s better to fight in the cage than in the gym.

“If somebody gets hurt, and they need a sub for Dec. 12, I’m ready.”