(The ‘Josh Kosh M’Gosh’: Taken from us too soon. Props: facebook.com/TrashTalkinKids)
Due to his unauthorized depiction in the “Trash Talkin’ Kids” t-shirt line, UFC star Josh Koscheck is suing NGAUGE, the MMA artwork and apparel company co-founded by Stephan Bonnar. NGAUGE was officially served with notice of the lawsuit yesterday morning.
Though a source at NGAUGE told us that reaction from the other fighters depicted in the shirt series (including Georges St. Pierre and Brock Lesnar) has been uniformly positive, Koscheck apparently didn’t see the humor in being associated with a brand of children’s overalls. Which is too bad, because that shit is kind of hilarious.
In an odd side-note to the story, Koshcheck’s legal representation in the case will be Christian Wellisch, a retired heavyweight fighter who you might remember as Shane Carwin’s first knockout victim in the UFC, back in May 2008. Following that fight, Wellisch was briefly fired during the mass-bloodletting over AKA’s refusal to sign away their likenesses for UFC Undisputed, then fired for real when he dropped a split-decision to Jake O’Brien in his next outing. These days, he runs a law practice near San Jose.
Unsurprisingly, Koscheck’s lawsuit has raised the ire of Stephan Bonnar himself, who now lists Koscheck as the person he’d like to fight most in the UFC. As he explained in an interview published yesterday on FiveKnuckles:
“He actually inspired the [Trash Talkin’ Kids] idea, he [talked] so much shit in the Daley fight and after the fight…I thought it was the funniest thing, like he is just a trash talking kid at heart….He got wind of it and he didn’t like it and I tried to explain it to him firsthand. ‘Like, look we’re doing them for all the fighters. It’s kind of a joke, just cartoon versions of the fighters.’…Anyway, so he didn’t like it. Turns out we won’t be able to sell his but we will be able to sell the other ones. I didn’t think his was gonna sell too much anyway. We’re getting hit up [by] his lawyers at the moment, it’s been a pain in the ass…I would drop a lot of weight to fight him.”