Filed under: UFCAfter 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.
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.
I’m looking, but I don’t see one ounce I’d be willing to part with.
It looks like Dana White is getting his wish. Following his first round KO loss to Vitor Belfort at UFC 133, Yoshihiro Akiyama will be making the cut to 170lbs. Like any professional model, “Sexiyama” knows that thin is in, and after dropping three straight in the Middleweight division the judoka hopes to reignite his career as a welterweight.
Akiyama strutted into the Octogon sporting a 12-1 (2 no contests) record in Japan, but he hasn’t fared too well in the UFC. After snatching a split decision win over Alan Belcher, he fell victim to a last minute Chris Leben triangle, was outpointed by Michael Bisping, and dropped cold by “The Phenom”. Although he has lined his pockets with an additional $135k thanks to three “Fight of the Night” bonuses, at some point you’ve got to pick up a ‘W’ if you want to keep fighting under the bright lights…generally speaking.
I’m looking, but I don’t see one ounce I’d be willing to part with.
It looks like Dana White is getting his wish. Following his first round KO loss to Vitor Belfort at UFC 133, Yoshihiro Akiyama will be making the cut to 170lbs. Like any professional model, “Sexiyama” knows that thin is in, and after dropping three straight in the Middleweight division the judoka hopes to reignite his career as a welterweight.
Akiyama strutted into the Octogon sporting a 12-1 (2 no contests) record in Japan, but he hasn’t fared too well in the UFC. After snatching a split decision win over Alan Belcher, he fell victim to a last minute Chris Leben triangle, was outpointed by Michael Bisping, and dropped cold by “The Phenom”. Although he has lined his pockets with an additional $135k thanks to three “Fight of the Night” bonuses, at some point you’ve got to pick up a ‘W’ if you want to keep fighting under the bright lights…generally speaking.
If the weight drop wasn’t indication enough that Akiyama is looking to reinvent himself, then certainly his desire to mix up training camps is. Akiyama has expressed an interest in joining forces with welterweight kingpin Georges St. Pierre and serving as his “apprentice”. While one could not find better inspiration, seeking a mentor in your own weight class can have its downsides. Not to mention that apprenticeships don’t always turn out as you’d hoped.
Your comments about the two trading greasing secrets go below.
UFC 137 takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on October 29.The pay-per-view event is headlined by welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (22-2) and former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz (25-7).Diaz relinquished his …
UFC 137 takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on October 29.
The pay-per-view event is headlined by welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (22-2) and former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz (25-7).
Diaz relinquished his welterweight championship in order to face St. Pierre for the UFC title.
Additionally, former lightweight and welterweight champion B.J. Penn (16-7-2) co-headlines the event opposite Carlos Condit (27-5).
A pair of heavyweight fights also join the aforementioned welterweight bouts as The Ultimate Fighter season 10 winner Roy Nelson (15-6) faces Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (27-9-2) and Cheick Kongo (16-6-2) steps in against Matt Mitrione (5-0).
Rounding out the main card action will be featherweight newcomer Hatsu Hioki (24-4-2) testing his skills on American soil against George Roop (12-7-1).
MMAjunkie.com recently reported that the event will receive two fights courtesy of a “UFC Prelims” slot on Spike TV.
Preliminary Card:
Donald Cerrone vs. Dennis Siver
Tyson Griffin vs. Bart Palaszewski
Tim Credeur vs. Brad Tavares
Jeff Curran vs. Scott Jorgensen
Brandon Vera vs. Elliot Marshall
Ramsey Nijem vs. Danny Downes
For additional information, follow Joshua Carey onTwitter
Over the past several years, the UFC has displayed some of the greatest entertainment known to man. The sport allows fans to witness first hand, real-life excitement through fighting.The sport of MMA is filled with hundreds of different personalities a…
Over the past several years, the UFC has displayed some of the greatest entertainment known to man. The sport allows fans to witness first hand, real-life excitement through fighting.
The sport of MMA is filled with hundreds of different personalities attracting fans of all kinds. We’ve seen fighters who aren’t the slightest bit shy to say what they feel and we’ve seen fighters play the role of the silent assassin.
While these fighters are currently fulfilling a career in the UFC, what about after? The following slides display the Top 10 Fighters that could pursue a career in acting after their fighting careers are over.
I have something to tell you if you’re willing to read closely. The fighter that you know as “The Spider” isn’t human by any stretch of the imagination. He’s a robot created in a top secret lab by Dana White and the Fiertita brothers whose …
I have something to tell you if you’re willing to read closely. The fighter that you know as “The Spider” isn’t human by any stretch of the imagination. He’s a robot created in a top secret lab by Dana White and the Fiertita brothers whose sole purpose is to leave you awe inspired so you’ll fork over your hard earned cash without the slightest hesitation. In other words, Anderson Silva is a pyramid scheme personified and we’re all suckers for buying into it.
Don’t believe me? Dana White touted Yushin Okami as the best Japanese fighter on the face of the planet. He told us that Okami is a fighter who very well could untangle Silva’s web of dominance. Within the blink of an eye, White’s robot took down the Japanese fighter known as “Thunder.” It was a cruel reminder for Okami that at 36 years of age, Silva can still teach you how to say adios, arrivaderci, and sayanora faster than a Rosetta Stone wet dream.
If there was thunder that night it sure as hell didn’t come from Yushin Okami. Once again a world class mixed martial artist was made to look like a fool at the hands of a fighter who may have tapped into something that only Bruce Lee was privy to. “I asked myself, ‘Where was this so called thunder?”
That’s when it dawned on me that the thunder was the sound of Okami’s back hitting the canvas as a sold out Brazilian crowd erupted into a fever pitch. The result couldn’t have been more disastrous for Okami if Silva asked him to commit seppuku (a form of Japanese suicide by disemboweling oneself) in front of a live audience.
After the fight, MMA‘s talking heads took to the airwaves in an attempt to put into words the brilliance they just witnessed at Okami’s expense. Soon the names of Jon “Bones” Jones and Georges St-Pierre were thrown about like exhausted clichés. After what transpired in Rio, how can anyone possibly believe that Anderson Silva can be beaten by mere mortals?
Eventually the radio show I was listening to was drowned out by the sound of a cash register and the maniacal laughter of Dana White. His pyramid scheme was a well oiled machine. We were suckered into believing that Yushin had a fighting chance. We went all in and our proverbial wallets were set ablaze for it.
Do mark my words when I say that no man on Earth can defeat Anderson Silva. Jon Jones can’t beat him nor can Georges St-Pierre. Unless an opponent discovers a way to reverse engineer him, he won’t be beaten by anyone short of a superhero. Our money is being sucked into a vortex of predictability and monotony. The ending has been the same for 14 straight fights. Anderson Silva KO’s a fighter, wishes him so long and farewell, and then starts dancing like he’s starring in the sequel to The Sound of Music. I’m expecting a little more from Dana White the next time around.
I want to see Silva vs the Predator. I don’t care if M-1 Global represents the interstellar extraterrestrial. Just get him in the Octagon against Anderson Silva. If co-promotion is a sticking point, here are 19 other fictional fighters that may give “The Spider” a run for our pay-per-view money.
There are very few mixed martial artists walking this planet who are considered not only one of the best active fighters in the sport today, but one of the best fighters ever. With so many amazing competitors scattered across the history of MMA, it is …
There are very few mixed martial artists walking this planet who are considered not only one of the best active fighters in the sport today, but one of the best fighters ever.
With so many amazing competitors scattered across the history of MMA, it is quite amazing to consider that two of the best fighters ever are currently active at this present time.
These two fighters are not only considered top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, but history will reflect them as two athletes who clearly changed the course of the sport forever through their quality of hand-to-hand combat.
Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva are unique fingerprints that many have and will emulate—but never duplicate. The reason for this emulation and desire to duplicate is simply motivated by the reflection of their tremendous success.
It is not a success that simply implies superiority, it is the kind of success that implies all-time greatness. Over the escalation of their careers, the paths they have followed clearly outline them as unstoppable forces in their respective divisions.
Quite simply, neither man can be touched.
Scores of No. 1 competitors have tried—and every single last one has fallen since the time these two men began their historic runs as UFC champions. It is quite unbelievable given the level of talent roaming the UFC welterweight and middleweight divisions.
With the understanding that they have exercised their domination a mere 15 pounds removed from one another, it is equally astonishing that they have not yet met in a super-fight. They have not avoided one another for lack of interest in that fight by the MMA community; more so that their agendas have led them down different paths.
The idea of a super-fight between “Rush” and “The Spider” is not a new idea. It has been discussed and clamored over for going on three years now. When two men are unbeatable, the only logical answer is to have them fight each other, right?
Not necessarily. A lot of things have happened since the first time this idea came to light. Most notably, the definition of what type of fighters these two men are. It is easy to imagine some type of historic mega-match between two historically untouchable warriors.
What is not so easy is to clearly look at what might actually happen if these two men were locked in a cage together. What it takes to look through the cloud of what if and how, is to once again look at the fighters as individuals—not as a super-fight duo.
Georges St-Pierre, a decent sized welterweight champion who has made a living of perfecting every aspect and angle of MMA that he can possibly define. He has found a way to stop every potential contender flat in their tracks; more often than not beating them so badly that is is quite simply an embarrassment to the losers.
He is a true mosaic of combat arts, and not just a representative of each and every aspect of the fight game. He is an expert, a clinical perfectionist at every turn. If the MMA gods were to handcraft the perfect fighter, the blueprint is without a doubt GSP.
Even with all his success, Rush is a very specific type of fighter. Knowing what type of fighter he is has not been enough to give any opponent an advantage, but he is clearly a cautious, calculated and extremely technical fighter.
There are many things Georges St-Pierre is; one thing he is not is a finisher.
There was a time when he had all the makings of a devastating finisher. There was a time when he cut through opponents like butter. That all changed when he lost his UFC title to a most unexpected TKO at the hands of one of the biggest underdogs this sport has ever known—Matt Serra.
The MMA community saw a change in GSP there after that watched him transform from an aggressive finisher to a more calculated surgeon. He no longer found the fastest way out of a fight more so than he found a way to systematically dismantle his opponents in such a decisive fashion that there could be no doubt as to who the superior fighter may be.
He is an exciting fighter, not a boring decision chaser, but a grinder who stays active and pursues his opponents relentlessly more often than not for 25 minutes. But he is cautious in doing so, and takes few risks when pursuing his victory.
Even by his own admission, it is a desire of his to finish fights, yet the finish remains elusive. This is not an insult to a great champion, it is a clear and present fact about his legacy.
Anderson Silva is a large middleweight champion who has roamed not only his own division but also one 20 pounds north at light heavyweight, with great success. Not simply success but devastating success that left a wake of destroyed fighters in his path.
His frame is large enough to even consider a possible fight at heavyweight given that he walks around at the required weight to compete there. Point being, fighting at middleweight is a tremendous advantage to the Spider, which clearly reflects in the devastation he places on his victims time and time again.
Like GSP, Silva is a calculated and surgical warrior who dissects his opponents with relative ease and leaves them embarrassed and dominated as he raises his hand in victory. Both GSP and Silva share many similar qualities; one clear edge that Silva carries over GSP is the quality of a finisher.
Silva has never suffered that devastating loss that could put a shadow of doubt into his psyche. The closest he came was a 24-minute beating at the hands of a PED-enhanced Chael Sonnen. It ended with Sonnen tapping out to a unsuspected triangle choke, once again leaving Silva a champion after a stunning finish.
Simply put, Silva is a relentless aggressor who taunts and toys with opponents before destroying them.
So getting back to a super-fight between the two top pound-for-pound fighters in the world—is it a fight that anyone really needs to see? Is there any real benefit to watching a tremendous welterweight move up to fight a tremendous middleweight/light heavyweight?
Is there any real benefit to seeing a smaller, more cautious, surgical warrior square off with a significantly larger, equally surgical, but clearly more devastating and aggressive fighter?
For GSP to beat Silva it would more than likely require his survival for 25 minutes inside a cage with a larger, more dangerous opponent, all the while finding a way to penetrate his armor. For Silva to beat GSP it would take nothing more than what he has been doing for years with relative ease against much larger and dangerous opponents than GSP.
Would making this fight even be responsible on the part of the fighters’ camps or the UFC? The romantic aspect of this super-fight is extremely appealing. The idea of two of the sport’s greatest warriors doing battle is an amazing and tantalizing angle to a growing sport that has not seen this opportunity presented as often as it should have been.
At the end of the day though, it is a fight that simply does not need to happen. After seeing very clearly the approach and actions of both the UFC welterweight and middleweight champions are, it is very clear that the outcome of this fight is much easier to diagnose than those calling for it would have us believe.
A back-and-forth battle between GSP and Silva would be an amazing thing. But the sad truth is, what would most likely happen would be more devastation than many would like to admit.
This journalist, for one, has no interest in watching the legacy of an amazing champion like GSP tarnished by squaring off with a destroyer who walks around at least 30 pounds heavier than GSP.
The allure is there, but the math simply does not add up. How about we start focusing on a super-fight that makes much more sense—and that is a fight between Anderson Silva and Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title.
GSP and Silva just does not make sense when diagnosed with a logical approach.
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.
