Josh Kosheck is the second best wrestler at 170, behind GSP. I think the reason he couldn’t take GSP down is because he was so overconfident that he trained zero wrestling. Which was stupid because that is where Koscheck would have had the advantage. Not only that, but he is probably the second best pure athlete in the division as well. He is very good, but his fighting strategies have been very poor.

Bottom line, which I think this article nails is that Koscheck is great athlete and a wrestler who has the potential to become a great fighter, but his strategies with his training and his fights have been poor. Its sad to see someone as talented as him lose fights just because of bad strategy and him trying to shut up the critics. He needs to stop listening to the people telling him he’s boring and start using what he’s best at… and thats his wrestling. If he can do that, everything else will come.

I’m sure these words have been posted here many times, but they serve the point: Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Yeah, by that definition, perhaps Thiago’s fight ending uppercut/hook combination was a “lucky” shot. Sounds like some folks may have had preconceived notions about the abilities of these fighters, and may have been disappointed when the reality diverged from those preconceptions. signed, clueless

Some think that Kos leaves himself very open when throwing the looping right hand which he does rather predictably.

I’m sure Thiago’s coaches broke down film prior to the fight and at least planned for Kos’ game plan.

Would i take Thiago in a rematch, h*ll no, but that doesn’t mean it was “lucky” or a fluke or anything else, it was a solid upper cut, followed by a devastating left hook.

-worst comment of the week on any mma related “news” site. his original style was lay n’ pray blanket-style. he got caught by a punch, got barely outpointed in a match with diego that was horrendous on both sides, and lost to GSP. it’s not a skid, it’s a tough sport with a ton of variables. he’s become a far more dominating & dangerous fighter than his TUF days as a result of his dedication to becoming more well-rounded.

Sure he knows how to throw a punch and have exchanges through many long hours in the gym. But in no means does that make him a devastating striker. Kos probably did not have much tape on him (highly doubt he would have watched anyways) and knew Thiago’s pedigree was BJJ. It was not an accident, nor did I say it was. It was well placed and Kos’ overconfidence became his downfall. But you cannot say that coming into the fight that the stand up would be even.
I have watched plenty of MMA and know first hand about this sport. So do not spout off when you clearly have no clue.

I do agree that he needs to ease up a bit on the fights. He is going to wear his body down but that is his decision and if he feels good I am not the one to tell him otherwise.

My perspective is that a strong wrestler often poses a technical problem for less well rounded fighters who have no solution for the wrestler’s tactics. Heath Herring against Jake O’Brien comes to mind, where Herring, a true badass and experienced MMA fighter, complained vociferously after the loss that O’Brien wouldn’t stand and trade with him, wouldn’t give the fans what they wanted. Thing is, O’Brien dominated the fight, controlled the action, dictated the pace, place and mode of the fight, and by every definition, that’s a win. Herring had no answer for O’Brien’s wrestling, and all he could do was whine about it afterward.
it would have been more effective for Herring to go back to the drawing board, come up with some tactics to deal with a dominant wrestler, and learn from the loss.
Many current fighters have done what Koscheck has tried to do, which is focus on stand up striking, as the fans react most strongly to toe to toe stand up, and getting tagged as a “boring” fighter is death in this business. Look at all the grief that Lyoto Machida took previous to his overwhelming knockout of Thiago Silva. Many fans, to my mind fans who are not as well versed themselves in the intricacies of the grappling/Gn’P/BJJ game, are not as enamored of the chess match that takes place on the ground. They’d rather see non-stop stand up action followed by a quick knockout, which I understand, but this is mixed martial arts, and the sport encompasses all of these combat aspects. Fights like Evans/Liddell and Rampage/Silva were great, but I also love to watch fights like Uriah Faber/Jens Pulver, or GSP/Fitch, where all aspects of the game come into play.

I’d be happier if more fans were appreciative of the ground game, and if less pressure was put on some fighters, like Josh Koscheck, to be “more exciting” and to abandon what Snowden appropriately acknowledges as his greatest strength. Styles make fights, and when a wrestler faces an all around master with superior skills, like Sean Sherk against BJ Penn, then everyone is happy. I just wish some of the strong wrestlers could apply their best techniques and not have to worry about how they win, just that they do win.

Finally, anyone who thinks Thiago scored a “lucky punch” should watch more matches and learn more about this sport. Thiago trained for years to land that punch, and you think it was an accident?

Kos can’t strike with the best strikers and wrestling just isn’t enough these days. It sounded to me like Snowden was saying not to give up on his wrestling, which I agree with. However, I don’t honestly think that wrestling is the only thing limiting Kos. He fights too much which seems to affect his game planning and preparation both. When he was dominating the Thiago fight, an elite fighter would then take it to the ground which further establishes control while minimizing the risk of getting knocked out. Instead he wanted to show how proud he was of his striking and got knocked out.

I guess where this becomes problematic is in the Alves fight. Clearly Koscheck tried to take him down and could not. Had he been better prepared for a standup battle, I wonder if he’d have been able to put up a decent fight instead of getting spun around by leg kicks for 15 minutes.

He ran into two brick walls when his wrestling was ineffective vs Alves and inferrior to the novice wrestling of GSP. In his only two previous losses since 2005, his wrestling failed him. I guess I don’t blame the guy for looking for other options. Yeah he probably could grind out wet blanket, workmanlike victories over these lesser opponents rather than kickboxing them, but he’s seen how far his one-dimensional style got him. If he’s going to pose a legitimate threat to the GSPs and the Thaigo Alves’s of the world, he had to improve his standup. Obviously getting caught Saturday shows he has quite a long way to go in that.

koscheck’s wrestling background means that he has the ability to take most MMA fighters down, but i think that his effectiveness on the ground ends there. when has koscheck displayed even average ground and pound? fight fans dislike lay and pray, not ground and pound, and i can’t remember a fight where koscheck’s striking on the ground made a difference in a fight. in the diego sanchez fight, i figured that diego thought his standup was better than koscheck’s, and that he wouldn’t be able to take koscheck down, so he stood with him for the entire fight. but if memory serves me right, the only time koscheck took diego down was at the end of the first round – from what i can remember, diego quickly reversed him and had a big advantage for the remaining seconds.

koscheck has also never showed any jiu-jitsu skills. no jits + no ground and pound = a pretty ineffective ground game, lay and pray aside. i think that’s the big issue with him. being well-rounded is of course necessary to be an elite fighter. but i’d argue that it’s even more necessary to do one thing very, very well, be it striking on the feet, striking from inside the guard, being able to pull off submissions, etc. and that lack of a real strength is what i think has been limiting koscheck.

Rogan made a comment that Koshcheck is dedicating 85% of his trianing to his stand-up. While I agree he needs work in that area he also needs to keep his grappling skills fresh. Your body’s muscles need to be refreshed and he is not doing that. If you are a scholar and start to forgo studying eventually your brain will begin to squander a lot of what you learned your muscles are no different.

He does need a rest, he should pass on this UFC 98 fight especially now that Karo will probably be suspended. Get some rest and get your mind back into what has gotten you to the dance thus far.

As far as being responsible I think that has always been a problem for him, Starting on TUF when he acted like an immature jackass every opportunity he got. He has this attitude that he should be a bad boy and carry an image of being tough and outlandish when more people would like him if he was dedicated and respectful.

No one is criticizing Koscheck for expanding his skills. It is important to learn how to defend submissions and strike standing. I’m cirticizing his decision to focus almost entirely on standup, to the point a novice fan would have no idea that this is a guy that can put people on their backs and pound them out.

Koscheck’s and other wrestlers should look closely at those who have success fromn that background. They, almost to a man, use their other skills to compliment their wrestling. They don’t ignore their wrestling to become mediocre kickboxers. The exception is Chuck Liddell, but he only survived as long as he did like that because of exceptional God-given power in both hands.

” I wonder why Snowden didn’t write this article after Kos put on that obviously ill-advised standup display vs Yoshida… on short notice no less.”

This is exactly my point. As a kickboxer, Koscheck is the kind of fighter that can either win or lose against the likes of Yoshida and Thiago. As a focused wrestler (with strong standup and sub defense), Koscheck rolls over guys like that.

For the record, I thought it was ill-advised for Kos to fight again so quickly after the Alves fight.

And it seems a bit disingenuous to be critical of Kos for taking fights whenever he can. The dude likes to fight, and likes to put on exciting fights. I wonder why Snowden didn’t write this article after Kos put on that obviously ill-advised standup display vs Yoshida… on short notice no less.

…but as far as sticking to wrestling, I dunno. One dimensional fighters don’t seem to get very far and don’t really make for pay-per-view main events.

I believe the stoppage with Paulo Thiago was a good one. He went limp for a good second and had the glaze in his eyes. Even if the ref didn’t stop it, one more good punch from Paulo would have definitely done it. Its better to call a fight a tiny bit too early than a tiny bit too late.