UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck‘s split from Javier Mendez and the American Kickboxing Academy has been acrimonious, to say the least.
Koscheck, who trained at the gym for nearly the entirety of his UFC career, announced his departure from the gym in a tirade after his win over Mike Pierce at UFC 143. He didn’t mince words then and he’s not mincing words now, as you’ll see in this transcript from an interview Ariel Helwani conducted with Koscheck after the UFC on FOX 3 press conference in New York City yesterday:
For the record, he was never my coach. He tagged along here and there. I think that I’m in a better place now, and my Dethrone Base Camp Fresno gyms, they’re rocking right now. We’re rolling. I think that Bob Cook will always be the man over there. Bob Cook comes and trains with me a couple of times a week in Fresno, whenever he can. It’s good to be around real coaches that care, real coaches that put time in. Real coaches that will put the effort in to make your fighter the best they can possibly be. And I have that now. And I think that May 5th, you guys are going to get to see that.
Koscheck previously owned a pair of AKA-affiliated gyms, but has changed the name to Dethrone Base Camp Fresno.
Helwani asked Koscheck if Mendez ever served as his coach, even back in the early days of his career.
Of course he worked with me. Did I learn anything? Eh. It is what it is. I’m done with that chapter of my life and I prefer not to talk about it. I prefer to talk about Dethrone Base Camp Fresno. That’s where it’s at right now. I have a lot of good guys training over there right now. I have a lot of guys coming in and out who come in for a couple of weeks and then they roll out. It’s a good time to be on your own and be doing what you gotta do.
Koscheck then dropped another bomb, saying that he believes AKA would have produced more champions over the years if they had “real coaching”:
I think that the reason why everyone is so successful at that gym over there in San Jose is because of the training partners. I really, truly believe that it’s why guys have fought for world titles and why guys have fought for UFC titles, like Cain. Because of the training partners. I think that’s the number one reason. I think if you added coaching, real coaching, you would have seen a lot more champions out of that gym. I think in my career we’re going to see big improvements really quick.
Koscheck has maintained his long relationship with Jon Fitch, even saying he would retire if the UFC tried to force him to fight Fitch. Will Fitch or any of Koscheck’s former training partners help him out in his new venture in Fresno?
If they’re smart, they’ll come and get real coaching. I think they should. That’s up to them. The door is always open to those guys. I prefer to never set foot in the city of San Jose ever again.
Fitch and Koscheck might be able to maintain their friendship, but other former training partners at AKA aren’t being quite so nice. As Strikeforce heavyweight Daniel Cormier told MMAjunkie’s Steven Marrocco:
“Sometimes people grow apart, and it was just Josh’s time,” Cormier said.
“It’s just Josh – Josh being Josh,” Rockhold told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “We’ve always been a family. Josh has always been on the outside; he’s always been an outcast.”
With many fighters, it’s hard to separate what you see on the screen from the person away from the camera. That’s not the case with Koscheck.
Love him or hate him—and a vast majority of MMA fans and people involved in the industry do, in fact, hate him—Koscheck is what he is, and he’s not changing for Javier Mendez, you or anybody else.
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