In all the excitement surrounding the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 12, much of the interest in seeing Josh Koscheck face George St. Pierre is based on the belief that Koscheck was the last man to be competitive with the world champion and that the former four-time All American only needed to slightly tweak his game to seal the deal. And it’s certainly true that he is the last man to win a round against St. Pierre and would probably have taken the decision if he had secured the takedown midway through the final round. But one should not lose sight of the fact that Koscheck soundly was dominated by St. Pierre regardless of what the idiotic scoring system says.
After an even first round, where they traded a takedown apiece St. Pierre dominated Koscheck for ten straight minutes showing the full range of his skills with great takedowns, repeated kimura attempts and clearly superior striking. Koscheck was repeatedly at the brink of being submitted in the second round and could do nothing against St. Pierre on the feet in the third. The takedown that may well have secured him (the ill-deserved) victory was superbly blocked by St. Pierre, showing exceptional balance and athleticism to first sprawl and then secure top position. With the exception of two minutes in the first round, Koscheck was on the back foot throughout their fight.
It’s a testament to Koscheck’s vivid personality that he’s been able to convince people that he was the last man to be competitive with George St. Pierre. The often repeated spin that his inability to cope with St. Pierre’s wrestling was due to him having not intensively trained his wrestling in the run up to the fight convinced many that a rematch would be different. This claim of course runs counter to the fact that Koscheck had been gradually phasing out his wrestling in favor of enthusiastic but unsophisticated boxing. And of course one shouldn’t forget that for all his striking training, Koscheck was dominated in the standing exchanges.
Worryingly, Koscheck seemed to learn all the wrong lessons from his defeat at the hands of St. Pierre. Rather than take his failure to takedown the Canadian as a sign for him to dedicate himself to maximizing his world class wrestling, Koscheck continued to focus on his standup. He repeatedly failed to take Thiago Alves down in their match at UFC 90 and would pay for standing against heavy handed Brazilian Paulo Thiago at UFC 95, with the debutant knocking Koscheck out with a viscous uppercut in the first round. Koscheck would respond to these setbacks by going back to his wrestling and showing more discipline inside the Octagon. He would quickly defeat returning veteran Frank Trigg but would show more patience en route to beating dangerous strikers Anthony Johnson and Paul Daley. In both fights he would respect the KO power of his opponent and would secure victory after taking down his opponent, choking Johnson out and winning by unanimous decision against Daley.
During it all, Josh Koscheck was always colorful with his brash personality making him someone that fans loved to hate. He would provoke the fury of fans by seemingly faking an eye injury in the fight with Johnson while at UFC 113 he would be furiously booed by the Montreal fans after insulting them and Canada. This was despite Daley having just suckered punched Koscheck in a pathetic attempt to get back at the American’s constant sledging. And at the press conference to formally introduce them as coaches, Koscheck would accuse St. Pierre of taking PEDs and demand Olympic style drugs testing. While his credentials as a challenger to George St. Pierre may be overstated no one can doubt that he’ll make the best possible antagonist for the mild-mannered Canadian over the next thirteen weeks. As George St. Pierre himself said, TUF12 should see the ultimate bad guy compete against the ultimate good guy.
