GSP VS KOSCHECK FORECAST
It’s the weekend Canada has been waiting for. The UFC welterweight champion, Georges St-Pierre, will go up against Montreal’s hate-magnet, Josh Koscheck in a championship bout.
UFC 124 is in Montreal at the Bell Centre and starts at 10 p.m. EST. As a bonus, UFC.com will be airing two preliminary bouts online at 9 p.m.
Koscheck got his Montreal lightening rod status by first off: fighting Georges St-Pierre in Montreal. Secondly, after his fight against Paul Daley at UFC 113 he called out Montreal fans by stating the Canadiens would lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL playoffs. So, it’s a bit of an understatement when Dana White says if Koscheck wins, he better have a helicopter waiting for him.
The trash talking Koscheck has been yapping shouldn’t even be considered a factor or if he’s gotten into St-Pierre’s head. In fact, GSP has shown that trash talkers usually take the worst punishment from him.
The biggest difference between these two from when they first met is confidence. GSP had just come off an upset TKO loss to Matt Serra and there were some uncertainties and questions about how GSP would respond. Any confidence issues St-Pierre had going into that fight at UFC 74 has all completely vanished now.
Since their first encounter, St-Pierre he has been dominating his opponents with a proven game plan of getting his opponent to the mat and letting them blow their energy, then it becomes a blowout win for GSP.
As for Koscheck, he’s been very impressive himself going 6-2 with a few big finishes along the way. However, he hasn’t been perfect and was knocked out and also lost a decision to Thiago Alves, who battered Koscheck for the better part of three rounds.
If you look at these factors, this rematch is shaping up to be a ground battle -- wrestling to be more specific. Koscheck is hesitant to stand with good strikers and GSP’s game plan has been flawless.
Of course Koscheck’s wrestling resume is impressive as a NCAA Division One champion and a four-time Division One All American. However, he wasn’t able to utilize this to the best of his ability against GSP in 2007. Since though, he has become a much better overall mixed martial artist.
There were rumbles from St-Pierre’s camp early in 2010 that he may take a break from MMA to pursue the 2012 Olympics in freestyle wrestling. Just so you get a hint at the level both of these men’s wrestling is at.
With the matchup of styles, a wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu battle seems imminent. The MMA community will be looking at who has improved the most in these departments since 2007 to pre-determine the winner. The bout also has the implication of ending on the ground with a submission or knockout. On fight night, everyone will see who exactly did improve the most.
Koscheck may play the role of the heel or villain in this but going to the other team’s home stadium back-to-back is a difficult thing to do for any fighter. A lot of respect goes out to Koscheck for this one.
UFC 124 Fight Card:
Georges St-Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck (UFC welterweight championship)
Stefan Struve vs. Sean McCorkle
Jim Miller vs. Charles Oliveira
Joe Stevenson vs. Mac Danzig
Thiago Alves vs. John Howard
Dustin Hazelett vs. Mark Bocek
Jesse Bongfeldt vs. Rafael Natal
Matt Riddle vs. Sean Pierson
Dan Miller vs. Joe Doerksen
Ricardo Almeida vs. T.J. Grant
John Makdessi vs. Pat Audinwood
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