Filed under: UFC
After repeated attempts to talk his way into a fight with former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes went nowhere, it looks as though Josh Koscheck might finally get his wish — and it’s all thanks to Diego Sanchez’s hand injury.
Just an hour after UFC president Dana White announced on Twitter that Sanchez was out of the UFC 135 co-main event with a broken hand, Koscheck took to his Twitter to say he’d accepted the fight, and was merely waiting to find out if Hughes would do the same.
“:) got a fight in 21 days [expletive]……..” Koscheck wrote, presumably before double-checking his math and realizing that UFC 135 goes down in Denver on September 24. “Oh ya 19 days then or something like that!!!! Either way it looks like I am in to fight matt Hugh if he takes it????”
Knowing how the dynamic has played out in the past, however, there’s no guarantee Hughes will accept it. Koscheck, along with AKA teammates Jon Fitch and Mike Swick, launched a minor media campaign to get a fight with Hughes a couple years ago, but the former champ managed to brush off each challenge.
But now, with Sanchez pulled from the bout and the pressure mounting to find a suitable, willing opponent on short notice, Hughes may have few other options.
Koscheck, who hasn’t fought since his decision loss to welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre in December of 2010, was rumored to be a participant in the UFC 139 event scheduled for San Jose, Calif. in November. There was even talk that his return would take place at middleweight as part of a one-time jump in weight classes.
Of course, that was before Sanchez got injured and the chance to face Hughes dropped in his lap.
Koscheck seems to have no reservations about taking the bout, even with less than three weeks to prepare. Now it’s just a question of whether Hughes will be equally as eager.