THE CANADIAN PRESS
For once, Josh Koscheck isn’t doing all the talking. The brash welterweight is doing his best to keep his powder dry while opponent Mike Pierce fires off shots.
But it’s hard to keep a good trash-talker down.
"Has he (Pierce) ever talked leading up to any of his fights this much? No chance," said Koscheck, who believes someone else is pulling Pierce’s strings. "The reason why he’s talking so much is because nobody knows who the hell he is.
"He’s like a freaking little troll out there running around running his mouth. And Saturday night I get to stomp on his head."
Koscheck (18-5) hopes to knock Pierce out or submit him at UFC 143 in Las Vegas, knowing there are opportunities to be had in a 170-pound division that will be ruled by an interim champion for the next few months while official title-holder Georges St-Pierre rehabs his knee.
Pierce (13-4) asked to fight Koscheck and has embraced taking aim at Koscheck’s bad boy image.
"No one likes Koscheck, but they’re going to like seeing him get his ass beat on Feb. 4," Pierce says on ufc.com when asked his thoughts on his opponent.
He has been labelling Koscheck as "a bit of a jerk" and called him "a little predictable" as a fighter.
"I’m predictable. Is that what he thinks?" Koscheck asked when told of Pierce’s comment. "Well predictable would mean that I’d be talking a lot of trash at this point. Predictable would mean that I’d been badgering him on Twitter for the whole training camp.
"I don’t think I’ve done any of that, because I really truly don’t care about Mike Pierce whatsoever. I obviously have a lot to lose if I go out there and I crap my pants Saturday night, let this guy beat me. So I’m very focused on training, I’m very focused on this fight. I know that in life you get opportunities and I can’t let this kid have an opportunity to build his name on my name. It ain’t going to happen."
In reality, Pierce is no kid. He’s 31 and turned pro in 2007 after wrestling at Portland State and working as a carpenter. The stocky five-foot-eight 170-pounder is 5-2 in the UFC, with losses to Jon Fitch and Johny Hendricks.
The 34-year-old Koscheck is a former NCAA champion wrestler who made a name for himself as a villain on Season 1 of "The Ultimate Fighter."
Since the reality TV show, the five-foot-10 wrestler has made himself into a well-rounded fighter with a powerful right hand. He is 14-5 in the UFC and has won bonus cheques for his performance five times.
He has made few friends along the way, carefully cultivating his black hat image. On his official UFC bio, the answer to "Do you have any heroes?" is "No! I am my own hero!"
Along with England’s Michael Bisping, he is a fighter that MMA fans love to hate.
His boss likes him, however, and Koscheck got a vote of confidence from UFC president Dana White on Thursday.
"It’s funny because Josh is one of the most booed fighters alive. Every time this guys walks into a room, he gets booed," White told the pre-fight news conference. "Every time we call Josh Koscheck to fight, or if we don’t call Josh Koscheck, he calls us. When a fight pops up, this kid is always ready (and) willing to fight anybody, any time, with no notice. It’s one of the things that I really respect about Josh Koscheck."
The Fresno-based fighter knows that a good performance Saturday could pay off big dividends.
With GSP perhaps on the shelf until late this year, the interim champion may be looking for another fight. And Koscheck, who considered moving up to middleweight last year because all the good 170-pound fighters seemed booked, sees himself as a possible opponent.
"I think 170 just got interesting now, with Georges being out and this whole (interim title) mix-up," he told Thursday’s news conference.
Both Pierce and Koscheck are coming off a win. Pierce won a split decision over Paul Bradley in November while Koscheck knocked out UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes in September.
The Hughes fight was the first since UFC 124 in December 2010, a five-round beating at the hands of St-Pierre that required facial surgery.
He had plates and mesh inserted, with Koscheck, citing his doctor, saying the area around his eye is stronger than ever.
"I feel like getting my other one broke so I can get it fixed and then I’ll never had a problem with the eye."
Koscheck has long been associated with the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose but now has two gyms of his own in the Fresno area.
His days with AKA seem numbered.
"There’s going to be some changes coming up in my life after this fight," he said in an interview. "I’m probably just going to be focused on training in Fresno from now on."
"Some conflicts of interest," he added without elaborating.
He offered another explanation at the news conference.
"It’s not Team AKA, it’s Team Me," he said of his training camp.
NOTES: The winner of Saturday’s Diaz-Condit main event will get a Harley-Davidson, courtesy of the motorcycle manufacturer. … White says he has no interest in light-heavyweight champion Jon (Bones) Jones fighting as a heavyweight this year although he says he expects it will happen eventually.
