Tag: josh koscheck

mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 12, Episode 2: Bruce Decoy

Posted on by Beau Dure

Last time on The Ultimate Fighter, we saw bits of 14 fights and learned that the “characters” on this show will be Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres and Michael “No, Not The Olympic Sprinter” Johnson.

Or maybe not. Jeff Lentz has a nasty smoking habit and a bit of bravado, bragging about not tapping if he’s in a choke or armbar. If the arm’s broken, it’s easier to get out, he says.

Off to the important part of the episode: Team selection. Koscheck says he wants Michael Johnson #1, then Marc Stevens, who briefly wrestled for Koscheck when he was a college coach. GSP figures Koscheck wants to take Stevens, so he’s going to bluff and pretend that he has Stevens ranked #1. (Then Lentz, Sayers, Pham — all a ruse in neat, large handwriting.)

Kos wins the flip. Will he take first fighter in the draft or the rights to set up the first matchup? He opts for first fighter. He jokes that GSP might be bluffing.

But Kos falls for it! He takes Stevens. GSP immediately snags Johnson. “It works,” GSP says with a smile. And Dana White learned about the strategy somehow, congratulating GSP in a confessional.

The rest:

  • Kos: Sevak Magakian, who overwhelmed JJ Ambrose for a decision.
  • GSP: Jonathan Brookins, who has a win in Bellator.
  • Kos: Sako Chivitchian, whose judo national championships are greatly exaggerated but may still be a solid MMA fighter.
  • GSP: Spencer Paige, who won the best of the prelim fights against Steve Magdaleno.
  • Kos: Andy Main, who has a thin resume and barely got a few seconds of screen time in the prelims.
  • GSP: Caceres, who smiles and briefly removes the comb from his hair.
  • Kos: Nam Phan, going surprisingly low for someone with a lot of experience and an impressive prelim win.
  • GSP: Kyle Watson, also going surprisingly low for his experience.
  • Kos: Aaron Wilkinson, the Englishman with a surprising ground game for a Wolfslair product.
  • GSP: Cody McKenzie, another guy who might’ve been expected to go earlier given his uncanny ability to beat everyone by guillotine.
  • Kos: Lentz, who demolished Dan Head in the prelim despite GSP dismissing his chances.
  • GSP: Dane Sayers, who broods over being the last pick.

First training session, and GSP tells us he’s going to be a “training partner” and let his coach do the coaching. His coach is Greg Jackson, one of the most successful in the business.

Koscheck says he has the advantage, and he addresses his “heel” label. “Meet me in person, and you’ll fall in love with me,” he says. I’ve met him, and he is indeed a good guy, but my wife shouldn’t feel threatened.

Fight announcement: GSP picks Caceres, the kid, to go out first against Lentz. GSP says Alex wanted the early fight. Will youthful enthusiasm work against him? Or is the gap in talent between Caceres and Lentz as big as it appears?

Continue reading →

0
mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter’: Season 12, Episode 1: Fight! (x14)

Posted on by Beau Dure

Time for another season of recapping, deconstructing and dissecting The Ultimate Fighter!

We know the coaches — the venerated Georges St. Pierre and the vilified Josh Koscheck, subject of some guy’s USA TODAY profile today. Now we get to meet 28 prospective cast members in 40-some minutes of TV.

Let’s say this up front: I don’t like the current format of 28 guys trying to fight their way into a 14-man show in which two first-round losers will get another chance. In theory, the idea is that the prelim fights separate those who “want to fight” from those who don’t. In reality, an unlucky draw can eliminate a really good prospect.

What I’d rather see: Have 24 guys fight for 12 spots. THEN pick four “wild cards” to bring the field to 16. The “wild card” concept isn’t needed during the tournament because it forces someone to fight five times in six weeks. If a good fighter loses in the first round, chances are good that an injury will open a slot in the tournament. At the very least, they can bring him back to fight in the finale.

A 12-fight preliminary round would still be chaotic. With 14, it’s a mess. The only way to meet the fighters is to be a geek with misplaced priorities like yours truly, who has been rounding up info from MMA Junkie, the enthusiastic MMA Valor blog and the ever-helpful Sherdog fight finder. And Wikipedia.

Onward …

Continue reading →

2
mma

UFC 113: Rua rules, Koscheck controversy and the case for Kimbo

Posted on by Beau Dure

UFC’s pay-per-views over the winter were held back by injuries and misfortune. UFC 111 (St. Pierre-Hardy, Carwin-Mir) had terrific talent but bogged down with some inconclusive wrestling in a couple of main-card bouts. UFC 112 ended with the borefest of Anderson Silva toying with Demian Maia.

UFC 113, on the other hand, was anything but boring, living up to just about everything it promised and more:

1. Rua rules: Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was the consensus winner of the last light heavyweight title fight among fans and media. Not among the judges. This time, Rua didn’t even let the judges settle into their seats, countering a Lyoto Machida attack to land by far the cleanest, hardest shot the once-unhittable champion has taken in his UFC career.

Rua seemed to be past his prime when he first came into the cage after a distinguished career in Pride. Now he seems to be peaking. He’ll need to stay there to keep his crown in a division littered with former champions still in good form (in reverse order: Machida, Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, Rampage Jackson), another former Pride star (Antonio Rogerio Nogueira) and some rising stars (Jon Jones, Ryan Bader). He might even have to deal with Anderson Silva if Silva finishes clearing out the middleweight division and decides to make 205 a long-term home rather than an occasional vacation spot.

2. Koscheck controversy: Josh Koscheck had been changing his image. The brash prankster from the first season of The Ultimate Fighter had become the great UFC company man, taking the occasional risky fight on short notice and trying to stay busy. A couple of spectacular knockouts laid waste to his reputation as a “lay and pray” fighter who relied too heavily on his college wrestling background. Dana White quipped after his loss to Thiago Alves that the crowd was actually on Koscheck’s side. In interviews, he was calm and thoughtful, saying he had matured a bit since his reality-show days.

But if Koscheck is trying to avoid controversy, he’s failing. In his last fight against Anthony Johnson, he was accused of embellishing the effect of an illegal knee/eye poke and then responding with eye pokes of his own.  This time, he fell to the mat after Paul Daley threw an illegal knee.

Did the knee make contact? One replay angle shows it grazed, at most. Watching another angle, I was convinced Daley had poked Koscheck in the eye before the knee landed, but from that angle, I’m not so sure.

Koscheck won a convincing decision, and Daley killed his UFC career by sucker-punching Koscheck well after the horn, so the debate on whether Koscheck embellished the incident was just a minor academic point.

But then Koscheck taunted the Montreal crowd, saying the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to knock their beloved Canadiens out of the NHL playoffs.

The Montreal crowd, of course, was going to support Quebec’s own Georges St. Pierre in the coaching matchup of The Ultimate Fighter. But Koscheck seems happy to provide a stark contrast to St. Pierre, one of the nicest guys in the sport.

3. The case for Kimbo. Cutting Paul Daley was an easy call after the postfight shenanigans, though it’s hard to believe the word “never” in reference to a guy still in his 20s.

The tougher call Dana White announced Saturday night, first with some hesitation and then more emphatically: Kimbo Slice’s loss to Matt Mitrione would be his last UFC bout.

At Bloody Elbow, Luke Thomas has a typically well-stated post giving several reasons to applaud the move. In short: White is showing his determination to keep the UFC as the unequivocal home of top-flight competition, even if that means cutting a fighter who’s a ratings draw.

Valid point. Here’s the case for keeping Kimbo:

1. Exposure for more fighters on Fight Night cards. Kimbo won’t sell pay-per-views if he’s not winning, but if you put him on a free card on Spike or Versus, he might draw some of the millions of casual fans who tuned in to see him on CBS’ prime-time shows or The Ultimate Fighter. And then those viewers will be exposed to the talents of other UFC fighters.

2. He’s a great spokesman for the sport. One of the greatest surprises about a guy who came from backyard brawls staged for the benefit of a porn site is that he has a likable, easygoing personality. He did well in a comedy sketch with Jimmy Fallon. His journey to learn more about mixed martial arts tells us all about the sport.

3. He’s not the only UFC fighter with no hope of contending. Sure, Kimbo will never be the UFC heavyweight champion. He’s making a great effort to round out his skills and has a better ground game than quite a few heavyweights, but he’s still too far behind. His edge in athleticism will fade with advancing age, especially with the knee problems that surfaced on The Ultimate Fighter.  But other weight classes have plenty of guys past their contending prime, some of them actually headlining cards. (Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin are both a good ways down the light heavyweight ladder these days.) Guys like Stephan Bonnar, James Irvin and Marcus Davis are in the organization because they push the action. Phil Baroni is in the UFC with a 13-12 record.

4. The heavyweight division still isn’t that strong. As Thomas is saying at this very moment on his radio show, the heavyweight class is the UFC’s weakest. And there aren’t a lot of prospects outside the UFC aside from the small collection at Strikeforce, many of whom White wouldn’t want back. This isn’t lightweight, where Japanese promotions are loaded. The 24th-ranked heavyweight in the USA TODAY/SB Nation consensus rankings is Ray Mercer, who was demolished a couple of years ago in an exhibition … by Kimbo Slice. BEFORE Slice took up serious study of the sport.

The heavyweight season of The Ultimate Fighter had a weak collection of fighters. Sadly, some of the better fighters from the show won’t have much of a career. Marcus Jones, who had a great aptitude for learning the sport and tremendous athleticism, may have suffered too much of a beating in his long NFL career. Mitrione told me two weeks ago he can’t always train all out because of the wear and tear from his football days. Roy Nelson and Brendan Schaub may be the only guys from that season who make an impact in the UFC.

Given all that, I can still see a place for Kimbo in the UFC. A limited one, perhaps. But enough of one that Dana White might want to reconsider letting Strikeforce or someone else get the ratings boost Kimbo will still bring for another couple of fights at least.

Update: Many thanks to Luke Thomas for talking with me a few minutes ago on his MMA Nation show. Luke raises the point that the UFC is trying to put its best foot forward while regulation efforts are still going in Ontario and elsewhere, and that Kimbo and the UFC may have already taken the best of what each has to offer the other. It’s a good discussion and not an easy call for Dana White to make either way.

1