Upcoming UFC 124 GSP vs. Koscheck

UFC 124 Georges St-Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck December 11th, 2010 from Montreal, Canada

Georges St-Pierre (champion) vs. Josh Koscheck - welterweight Championship

This is not the first time these two guys have met in the cage. They fought back in August of 2007 at UFC 74. That was GSP's first fight since loosing for the second time in his professional mma career. He had just lost his belt and after taking the unanimous decision over Koscheck GSP has won every single fight. After taking out Koscheck he got the interim title before taking the belt that he had lost to Matt Serra right back. 

Some people have said that GSP has become boring. He used to finish guys by KO and TKO and recently all his fights have been going the distance. With the exception of his match with BJ Penn that ended by corner stoppage after the fourth round. I admit that I said for a while that I felt like GSP had to finish someone. He hasn't knocked anyone out lately and he absolutely has the power to. But I don't care how a fight finishes as long as both fighters work the whole time. He may not knock a guys jaw in half but he works the entire fight. He gets huge takedowns and dominates guys on the mat, leaving them completely neutralized. GSP says he is a specialist in rematches, taking out trash talkers and defeating wrestlers. Koscheck has all three checked off. We've seen recently that it can be risky to leave it in the judges hands and I really don't see GSP letting this fight go more than 3 rounds. GSP has trained himself against an army of men so one fighter will not defeat him. He says he is at his best when he is in a rematch position. He says the pressure is not on him. He has beat Koscheck before. And when he beats him this time they will never have to fight each other again. He has never been so motivated for a fight. I think he will defeat Koscheck before the fight goes the distance. It would be such poetic justice also if Koscheck was to loose by rear naked choke after his team on the 12th season of the ultimate fighter lost that way so many times. 

Koscheck and his team blame the last fight on Koscheck being a dumb fighter at the time. He was a world class wrestler and had been wrestling since the age of 4 so was confident in those skills and focused his training on his stand up game. He went into training thinking no one could take him down. Wrong move going against Rush. Koscheck is not a bad fighter, that is not why I dislike him. He's actually a really great fighter. He has improved so much since the first time he faced GSP. Since their first fight Koscheck has lost to Paulo Thiago and Thiago Alves (fighting on this card) but he has also won 6 other fights. Facing and completely dominating guys like Frank Trigg, Anthony Johnson, Chris Lytle and Yoshiyaki Yoshida. 4 of those 6 wins coming from knockout, TKO, or submission. He has evolved from the beginning of being solely a wrestler to becoming a legitimate mixed martial artist. Koscheck just has a really rank attitude that I can't stand. Some people say he didn't start this was but has embraced the role of villain after constantly receiving boos from the fans. This is a whole bunch of baloney. He was on the very first season of TUF and even then was running his mouth, acting like a punk before he was named a "villain". His wrestling coach from college even said he was a loner, he didn't get along with anyone because he was such a prick. People respected him because he could knock them out but that's not the way I would want to have respect.

I feel like Koscheck is like a little boy that's acting out for attention. Even when he was coaching on the Ultimate Fighter, whenever he yelled something out he would look around, waiting for someone to react. He would chirp at GSP, trying to get a reaction out of him as well. He said GSP was cowering out when he would just walk away. Hmm, most people call that being a man. Until someone is physically threatening you, what’s the point in giving them the satisfaction of a reaction? GSP said it himself, he'll do his talking in the octagon.

I like that Koscheck mentioned he has tried to make GSP angry so he is motivated to train so when they face each other in the cage GSP will be at his best. But be careful what you ask for Kos, because as Joe Rogan so eloquently put it, a pissed off Georges St-Pierre is a dangerous mother f*cker. We'll see who the better fighter is on Saturday night. It’s easy to look tough. The real tough guy just shows you, he doesn't have to constantly tell you how bad*ss he is.

Stefan Struve vs. Sean McCorkle - heavyweight

I am absolutely going for the skyscraper, Struve for this fight. He's a 6'11" giant that is only getting bigger. When he started in the UFC he was still tall but he was really lanky and a skinny looking heavyweight only about 230 pounds. There is no way I could ever imagine him taking on big guns like Velasquez, Carwin or Lesnar which as he gets better he would eventually have to do. His two loses in the UFC came to Roy Nelson and Junior Dos Santos, the current number one contender for the heavyweight belt. Now at 22 years old, he is still very young but has 4 UFC wins under his belt. He is still improving each time he gets into the cage and I'm looking forward to see how far he has come since his last fight against Christian Morecraft where he was dominated in the first round and came back to win by KO 20 seconds into the second round. For all those reasons and the fact that Sean McCorkle's nickname is "big sexy" I am going with the Dutch boy on this one.


John Howard vs. Thiago Alves - welterweight
I think this fight will be sick. Fight of the night potential right here. Alves is coming off two loses to Jon Fitch and GSP and Howard also just lost to Jake Ellenberger. I really like Alves but he had his shot at the title, he can have a shot again but for now I'd like to see someone else moving up in the ranks and that guy is John Howard.


Jim Miller vs. Charles Oliveira - lightweight
My pick is simple, this fight is going to be good, both guys are great fighters but Oliveira has an undefeated record and it a ridiculous submission artist. I want to see him put Miller to sleep tonight too.


Mac Danzig vs. Joe Stevenson - lightweight
Have to go with Joe Daddy Stevenson here. His record going into this fight is 36-11 but when ever Stevenson fights really well known names like BJ Penn, Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez and George Sotiropoulos he looses. Yeah he won the second season of the ultimate fighter but whats the point of a guy climbing the ladder if he just gets knocked out when he reaches the higher level guys. I don't think I've ever seen Danzig fight but he's lost 4 of his last 5 fights so this could be a must win for him. This looks to me like its a desperate matchup, both guys have to come out with the win, but only one will.


Mark Bocek vs. Dustin Hazelett - lightweight
I'm sorry, I have to go against the Canadian. I just like Dustin Hazelett. I don't have any real reason why I do but I like watching him fight. And I'm pretty sure his 5" height advantage will pay off in this one. 


Joe Doerksen vs. Dan Miller - middleweight

Of course I'm going with the hometown boy, el dirte here! No other reason other than he's from my province Manitoba.