Josh Koscheck Blog: Playing the Bad Guy, Needing a Big Return Fight

[WrestlingSmarks News]

Josh Koscheck is back with the second edition of his sportsnet.ca blog leading up to his fight with Matt Hughes at UFC 135. In the first edition, he talked about his UFC 124 fight with Georges St. Pierre and his eye injury mostly. This one is about his personality, and why he acts like he does. He also talks about his desire for a big return fight, and how happy he was that the Hughes matchup just landed in his lap. First, he talks about his bad guy image:

I play this bad guy role for the camera and, yeah, I have fun with it. The people who know me know that I'm not always cocky or arrogant and talking smack but, sure, I have fun with the promotional side of this sport. I get my name out there and people react to me.

I laugh at lot at some of the stuff I read about myself; it's funny to me how excited and upset people get about some of the things I say. I know who I really am as a person, away from TV, and I'd rather people boo me than hit the hotdog stands when I walk to the Octagon.

Y'know I don't care too much what perfect strangers think about me as a person, but I do care about having the respect of the fight fans as a UFC fighter.

​

He discusses how he knows that his fight with GSP "sucked", and that he needed a big comeback fight to try and erase the memory of his last outing. He asked for middleweights and was turned down, but when Diego Sanchez got hurt, he knew that this was the fight for him:

I owe it to the fans and myself to come back and give them a fight they can get excited about -- and a lot of people are excited to see me against Matt Hughes next weekend.

That kind of respect -- the respect for me as a fighter and not a TUF coach or someone who says things in interviews -- does matter and I owe the fans a great fight after the GSP fight didn't live up to the hype.

​

And he makes it clear that Hughes couldn't duck AKA fighters forever:

There's no real issue with me and Hughes. It is just he said it numerous times he didn't want to fight any of us from AKA, my train team, and it is long overdue he fights one of us.

Now I am going put Matt Hughes in his place. When he was on top, he wouldn't give any of us "kids" our shot at him. He never manned up. Now he's been forced to fight me and this is going to be so much fun.

​

I've personally never been a fan of Koscheck the talker or Koscheck the fighter, but these two blogs have opened my eyes to his motivations a bit more. Interviews are great but fighters only answer the questions they're given, and sometimes the questions can be leading. It goes without saying that blogging is awesome (thanks SB Nation!), but it seems to give fighters more of their own voice. I hope that fighters continue to use these outlets to help fans get to know them better. They work well.