411 MMA Interview: Josh Koscheck
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 02.20.2009
UFC welterweight contender, Josh Koscheck, speaks to 411mania for an exclusive interview before his fight at UFC 95.
UFC welterweight fighter, Josh Koscheck, returns to the Octagon this Saturday to face UFC newcomer, Paulo Thiago, in a main card bout at UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson. Currently training with American Kickboxing Academy, Kosheck will be fighting just two months after his brutally impressive Knockout Of The Night victory over Yoshiyuki Yoshida at Fight Night For The Troops.
Koscheck appeared on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter where he defeated current UFC middleweight, Chris Leben, before losing in a split decision to Diego Sanchez who went on to become the middleweight winner of TUF. Following TUF, Koscheck amassed a 10-3 record in the Octagon (12-3 for his professional MMA career), losing only to the likes of Drew Fickett, the current UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre, and Thiago Alves at UFC 90. The Alves loss dashed Koscheck's hopes for a shot at the welterweight title, but with the impressive first round KO over Yoshida, Koscheck might not be very far away from his first ever shot at MMA gold. Late last year, there was some controversy over UFC releasing some American Kickboxing Academy fighters due to a contract dispute with regards to the UFC video game. But after that blew over, news came out that Koscheck had signed a 20 month extension with the UFC, the world's premiere MMA organization.
Late last week, Koscheck took a break between interviews to speak with me and 411mania with regards to his fight and his aims for this year in the UFC:
Jeffrey "The Vile One" Harris: Where are you with your training right now, and how are you feeling, fighting again so quickly after the bout with Yoshida?
Josh Koscheck: Training is pretty much done. I've got one more hard day of sparring tomorrow. Some light mitt work tonight, and then Saturday-Sunday pretty much relax, and fly to London on Sunday, and get ready for fight week. For my training and where I'm at, I feel in great shape. I'm ready to fight and after my fight with Yoshida I wanted to keep busy, so I'm trying to fight again as soon as possible after this fight as well.
TVO: Do you think fans still judge you based on what happened in the first season of TUF?
JK: You know, I really don't know, and I really don't care. I'm here to do my job, and my job is to fight, and win fights, and put on exciting fights. I don't care what fans' perception of me is. There's going to be fans that love me, there's going to be fans out there that hate me. My job isn't to worry about what the fans care. My job is to go out there and put on exciting fights for the fans and fight as many times as I can for myself and my career.
TVO: If you could pick one guy in the welterweight division to face right now, who would it be?
JK: All of them. I don't care who I fight, I don't care where who it is, and I don't care when it is. So, I'll fight anybody.
TVO: It was recently reported that you signed a 5-fight, 20 month extension with the UFC. After you've fulfilled the extension, would you like to re-sign with the UFC?
JK: Of course. That's home right now, for mixed martial arts, and you'd have to be a fool to not want to be a part of the UFC. Ultimately it's going to be about what's the best decision for me at the time, but right now I have 20 more months on my contract, and I'm focused on fighting February 21, and that's it. So if I look ahead, then bad things could happen in February.
TVO: Your opponent for UFC 95, Paulo Thiago, is an undefeated Brazilian fighter who has fought for the Jungle Fight organization. Any thoughts on Thiago, and have you been working on anything specifically for this fight?
JK: I train the same way for every fight. I don't even know what the guy [Thiago] looks like to be honest with you. I've never watched any film on him; I've never even seen a picture of him. It's my coach's responsibility to watch the film and tell me how I should fight. That's the way I work it.
TVO: How was it fighting four times last year?
JK: Great. My job is to fight. Just like your job is to report stories, my job is to fight. If you don't report stories, you don't get paid. If I don't fight, I don't get paid. That's my job, is to fight.
TVO: You lost a decision in the fight with Thiago Alves, but do you consider it a moral victory at all in taking the fight on such short notice and Alves not being able to finish you off despite that he gave you a lot of hard shots?
JK: No. I'm pissed at myself because I lost. There is no victory when you lose. I don't go into the cage whether I have eight weeks, two weeks, or I have one week to train for a fight, I expect to win every single time that I go in there, and if I don't, then I'm disappointed. Winning is the only thing that drives me.
TVO: How do you feel about possibly fighting UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre, again in the future?
JK: I definitely think it would be a different fight this time. I'm more and more experienced, but at the end of the of course Georges has what I want which is the welterweight belt. But right now my hands are full with Paulo Thiago on February 21.
TVO: Is a UFC Welterweight Title shot on your radar provided you are successful against Thiago?
JK: Well, I don't know that. That's up to the UFC. I've been close before. I just want to continue to fight, and win fights, and fight as many times as I can this year.
TVO: Any people you would like to thank before the fight?
JK: Yeah, definitely: American Kickboxing Academy, Zinkin Entertainment, Sprawl Fight Shorts, and MarcClothing.com.
TVO: Thank you so much sir and good luck for your fight.
After the first couple of shit interviews with War Machine and that guy who beat Kimbo, I thought 411mania was settling for the least common denominator. Thanks for coming up with a relevant interview with a relevant fighter.
Posted By: konron (Guest) on February 20, 2009 at 01:26 AM
Decent interview but nothing special or nothing worth remembering. Are you afraid to talk about anything outside MMA or ask the challenging questions?
Posted By: slapnuts (Guest) on February 20, 2009 at 02:09 AM
Hopefully it's 5 fights or 20 months- which ever one takes longer... otherwise, at his current rate, he could be out of a contract by October.
Posted By: cyks (Guest) on February 20, 2009 at 02:19 AM
To slapnuts, what challenging questions did I not ask? He doesn't know what the whole thing with AKA and UFC was. And he didn't want to talk about greasegate. It wasn't worth discussing.
Posted By: Jeffrey Harris (Registered) on February 20, 2009 at 03:28 AM
Wow who knew Koschecks job was to fight??
he only mentions it like 20 times
BOOOOO koscheck
Posted By: Guest#4517 (Guest) on February 20, 2009 at 05:56 AM
The best part of this interview is when he says, "Just like your job is to report stories, my job is to fight. If you don't report stories, you don't get paid." I wonder what kept Harris from screaming, "I DON'T GET PAID!" How many actual paid employees does 411mania have? Two?
Posted By: Wow (Guest) on February 20, 2009 at 07:58 AM
"My job isn't to worry about what the fans care. My job is to go out there and put on exciting fights for the fans"
?
Posted By: Guest#9932 (Guest) on February 20, 2009 at 08:23 AM
I'm more surprised that he apparently doesn't watch any footage of his opponents at all. You should have asked a few more questions about that.
Posted By: Jake (Guest) on February 20, 2009 at 11:56 AM
I absolutely hated Kos on the first season of TUF, but he has recently grown on me, and I find his fights exciting to watch. I have to say though that it was a bummer to hear you mention the controversy between UFC and AKA, but then not to ask about it in the interview.
Posted By: Todd Vote (Guest) on February 20, 2009 at 01:40 PM
I didn't want to be confrontational and be a smart aleck by saying, I DON'T GET PAID! And I thought it was a great quote/sound byte.
The I don't care about the fans thing, I'm putting on exciting fights for the fans, it was weird but he did say that.
I didn't ask him more about watching the footage because he gave what I felt was a valid, legitimate answer to that question. I mean AKA is an elite training camp. They've got a lot of great fighters, so they're method is for the coaches to watch and study the tape and translate all of that for the fighters. Made sense to me.
Posted By: Jeffrey Harris (Registered) on February 20, 2009 at 04:03 PM
To Todd, I've spoken with a peer who asked Koscheck about the controversy before, and Kos said he didn't know what happened. And since the matter was resolved and he's not leaving the UFC for now, I wanted to address some other things.
Posted By: Jeffrey Harris (Registered) on February 20, 2009 at 04:05 PM
