Josh Koscheck will make his debut as a coach on season twelve of "The Ultimate Fighter" on Wednesday evening, airing after Ultimate Fight Night 22 on Spike. Read part I of Cagewriter's interview with Koscheck here.
Josh Koscheck is known as one of the bigger trash talkers in MMA. He has a brash side, but immediately softens when you bring up his friends and family.
Koscheck and Jon Fitch, teammates at American Kickboxing Academy, are two of the UFC's best welterweights. However, they refuse to face off because their friendship means more than the belt.
Koscheck says that if he wins the title from Georges St. Pierre on Dec. 11, and he is forced to face Fitch, he'll vacate the title.
"When I win the title, I'd vacate it and let Fitch win it. They can't make us fight. I would vacate the title and say, Fitch, you fight. You win the title."
Though he does not have any children of his own, Koscheck is close with his four nieces and nephews, and says that a family of his own is the one thing missing.
"I'm happy with my success. 99.9 percent of my life is complete. I just need that one percent. That one little thing, and that's a family."
"It's everything. One of the things I've learned over the last two years is that money isn't important and winning the title isn't as important as family. Money, winning the title, that's icing on the cake. What I want is a family and kids."
'You're so slow. That's all you have Paul?'
But that soft side doesn't show up in the Octagon, where he has developed a reputation as a trash talker. He even admits that he talks throughout his fights, including his bout with Paul Daley. Koscheck won the unanimous decision, but Daley sucker punched Koscheck after the fight had ended.
"He was talking [profane]. He said, 'Let me up, you [profane.] All you want to do is hold me down.' I said, 'This isn't [profane] kickboxing, this is MMA.' He started eye-gouging me. I could feel his finger in the back of my head. I couldn't see out of that eye for a month.We were talking [profane] the whole fight. The first round, he threw a jab, and I said, 'Oh my God. You're so slow. That's all you have Paul?'"
He does admit that the mid-fight talk doesn't always pay off.
"When I fought Georges, when Georges got the last takedown, I was talking the entire time. I said, 'You got lucky today, Georges,' and he cracked me with a big elbow."
After the fight, Koscheck taunted the crowd in Montreal, saying that his Pittsburgh Penguins would beat the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup playoffs. (The Canadiens went on to win the series, but were knocked out by another Pennsylvania team, the Flyers.)
Even after the crowd booed, spat and threw things at Koscheck, he said he regrets nothing.
"Why would I regret anything I say? I don't live my life with regrets. I try to do what I feel is right at the time. If it's the wrong thing to say, it's the wrong thing to say. I can't change the past."
But he wasn't afraid that night, and he's not concerned about going to Montreal again to fight GSP.
"The UFC already has plans to hide me this time around, and I'll have security with me 24x7. Dana White gets death threats every day. I get death threats every day. I see the messages, but, it's life. What am I going to be? A [profane] and hide forever? If some one wants me, they're going to come get me."
He has a message for anyone who wants to go after him: Come and get me.
"If they want to fight me, come to the gym. We'll sign a waiver and throw down. I'll fight everyone who wants to."
The invitation is open.
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