Jose Aldo was supposed to fight Erik Koch at UFC 149. He was only supposed to fight Koch because Hatsu Hioki turned down the title shot.
Aside from Hioki, other top fighters in the featherweight division—Chan Sung Jung and Dustin Poirier—were booked to fight each other.
That meant the only top featherweight left with even a slight claim to being the No. 1 contender was Koch.
However, now that an injury to Aldo has postponed the fight, Koch should not keep his status as the No. 1 contender.
Hioki has since lost to Ricardo Lamas, and he has lost his claim to a title shot. Meanwhile, Lamas has won three fights in a row—the other two being fights against Cub Swanson and Matt Grice.
Also, Poirier and Jung faced off, and Jung earned a fourth-round D’arce choke submission in a fight-of-the-night performance.
There are plenty of available contenders now, and just because Koch was scheduled for the title shot doesn’t mean he deserves it.
Koch does have a solid record. He is 13-1, and the only loss came to former title challenger Chad Mendes. However, his best win is against either Jonathan Brookins or Raphael Assuncao, depending on who you ask.
Neither of those fighters are near being top-10 fighters, and Assuncao has even dropped to bantamweight since that loss.
Koch has zero wins over current top-10 fighters, and doesn’t deserve a shot at the undisputed No. 1 featherweight.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.
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