I don’t know if the following is true. You never really know if Josh Koscheck is telling the truth or playing some kind of angle in order to secure a big fight.
He’s a brilliant businessman, and that’s what brilliant businessmen do: They set up ways to add more cheese to their personal checking account.
Regardless, here’s what Koscheck said on Twitter late last night:
#UFC just offered me to fight BJ Penn…I said YES!!!!! Just waiting on him!!!!!! Let’s scrap bra?
— Josh Koscheck (@JoshKoscheck) May 17, 2012
As of this writing, there’s been no response from Penn’s camp. We don’t even know if Koscheck is telling the truth.
But I can’t help but imagine that Penn vs. Koscheck would be a pitch-perfect main event for the next UFC on FOX show in August. That’s the card currently headlined by Brian Stann vs. Hector Lombard, but the ratings disaster of the Jim Miller/Nathan Diaz-headlined FOX show earlier this month might just have the UFC hedging their bets and attempting to put together a bigger main event.
It makes perfect sense from every conceivable angle. Both fighters are coming off losses to notable contenders. Both guys are huge names with the dependable hardcore fanbase, but more importantly they’re names that the casual fan will know.
Sure, they’re coming off losses in their last fight, but that doesn’t really matter when it comes to network television. On FOX, you’re trying to broaden the scope of your typical audience by giving them names they recognize in a main event and then building to that main event with consistent advertising in the weeks leading to the fight.
Neither Penn nor Koscheck may ever sniff a title shot again. But I’m not sure they care, to be honest, and it doesn’t really matter where they stand in the rankings.
The audience the UFC needs to attract does not care about rankings or losses or title shots—they only care when they’re given a reason to care, when they see that someone they’ve heard of is fighting.
That’s what Penn and Koscheck offer. It’s the perfect fight for FOX, and I hope it happens.
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