Competitive fighting is a sport that requires its athletes to be in peak mental and physical condition. A fighter must be able to perform at the highest levels of strength and endurance for the entire fight. The mental side is just as important, because if your mind isn’t in tune with the fight at hand, not only can you find yourself defeated, but you can end up injured as well. At UFC 143 Josh Koscheck revealed that while he may have been able to pull out a victory, his head may not be in the game.
Although the night ended for Koscheck with him having his hand raised for the 15th time while fighting inside the Octagon, he did not look like the individual who had become one of the most consistent welterweights in the UFC. Against Mike Pierce he looked apprehensive and unwilling to let his hands or world class wrestling go at any point in the fight. He was able to earn a split-decision victory, one that many people contest, but his comments in the aftermath of the fight were much more alarming.
In interviews with various media outlets, Koscheck admitted that he wasn’t fully invested in this fight and that it was “hard to get up for.” He went on to further state that this could be due to the fact that Pierce wasn’t as big a name as Carlos Condit, who he was originally scheduled to face, or one of the other 170-pound fighters that are ranked near the top of the division. Another problematic statement had to do with Koscheck’s relationship with American Kickboxing Academy, where he has been training for the majority of his career. He announced that he has officially split from the team due to differences with AKA founder Javier Mendez, and will be focusing on his own gym. Both of these comments should create reasons for alarm regarding Koscheck’s potential to one day hold the welterweight title.
Koscheck’s first comments make you wonder if he potentially overlooked Pierce. While he didn’t have the name or the resume that many fighters who are considered to be “elite” have, Pierce was picked by numerous media outlets to upset Koscheck in this bout. During the fight he attacked effectively and aggressively, and even did enough to convince one of the judges that he won the bout. At this level, Koscheck should know that each and every fight should be looked at as if it is a title bout. You can look back to the way he was upset at UFC 95 against the debuting Paulo Thiago for evidence of what happens when someone is caught off guard. If he expects to stay near the top of the rankings, Koscheck needs to acknowledge that the target on his back is very large, and he should approach every outing as such.
But leaving AKA is a situation unto itself. While Koscheck has stated that he will maintain the great relationships he has created with fighters such as Jon Fitch and Cain Velasquez, and trainers Bob Cook and Dave Carmarillo, he is now planning on building training camps around himself as he prepares for each bout. While he is a very talented and experienced individual I would hope that he would instead find a permanent team to continue his training. We’ve seen in the past that fighters who have built camps around their needs may have flashes of success, but do not sustain that success when facing the higher echelons of competition. Many of the larger teams, such as Jackson’s MMA or AKA, give fighters the management services they are looking for, in addition to the competition from teammates who are also near the highest points of competition. Koscheck needs to keep himself in this environment in order to remain a viable contender in the future.
At 34 years of age, Josh Koscheck is in a position to determine the direction of the latter portion of his career. It’s well known that he wants to hold the welterweight title before he hangs up the gloves, but if he continues to compete as he did at UFC 143, he will not only fail at reaching that goal, but he will also risk getting injured again.
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While Koscheck may have not been eager to fight Pierce due to the lack of upside, I don't by the idea that Koscheck overlooked the guy who had threatened Fitch the Pierce did.