When Erik Koch was first booked to face Jose Aldo, it raised some eyebrows. Sure, he was 13-1, but as far as big name wins were concerned, there weren’t any on Koch’s resume.
Many felt that Koch had been gifted the booking against Aldo because Hatsu Hioki turned it down and Chan Sung Jung and Dustin Poirier were scheduled to face each other.
That fight never came to be, as injuries caused it to eventually be scrapped.
Going into UFC on Fox 6, Koch had a lot of pressure on him. He needed to show that he did indeed deserve a shot at the featherweight title, and a win over Ricardo Lamas would have gone pretty far in establishing that point. After all, Lamas was heading into the bout after defeating two tough opponents in Cub Swanson and Hatsu Hioki.
After seven-and-a-half minutes of action, the featherweight division had a new contender. But it wasn’t Koch, it was Lamas, who used some nasty elbows from the top to open Koch up and bring about the TKO stoppage.
The defeat will send Koch back to the drawing board, while Lamas seems to be very close to getting the nod to face the winner of UFC 156’s main event between Aldo and former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.
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