Retrospectively: How good was Josh Koscheck, really?

The Natural Born Runner

The Natural Born Runner

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Honestly I never saw the big deal about Josh.

Notable wins:

Diego Sanchez
Chris Lytle
Anthony Johnson

Not all that great really, right?

He beat washed up, old ass versions of Trigg and Hughes - so I ain't counting those as "notable".

His win over Johnson was controversial to say the least, and I also had him losing to Pierce.

One thing I will say in his defense, is that I always thought he beat Hendricks when they fought.

So at 17-10, riding a 5 fight losing steak, 4 of which were stoppages...

Looking back at the whole career, how good was Josh?
 
When Fitch was GSP's bridesmaid, Koscheck was Fitch's bridesmaid.
 
Keep in mind he beat Johny Hendricks, judges screwed him but still an impressive win.
 
Koscheck was pretty good, he just fought way past his prime, and he still nearly beat Johnny Hendricks on the tale end of his career..

He only ever lost to top competition, and while you can "disregard" his wins, those were the best welterweights at the time...

Edit: Unless he gets beat up in bellator, there really isn't a stain on his record, everyone he has lost to at least at one point in time was a top 5-10, even Erick Silva has had moments of greatness despite being an overall disappointment as a prospect, I think you have to give Josh props, he was a consistent top 5-10 his whole career and GSP was possibly the most dominant champion in history..
 
Josh fought in a era where you could get away with just having good wrestling. Time and the development of the sport caught up to him..
 
At his best he was prob #3 in the world, always had GSP and Fitch ahead of him
 
A win over Rumble is pretty darn good, even a 170 machinist Rumble.

To answer your question though not as good as be could have been. Guy had unbelievable wrestling and athleticism. Once he knocked out a couple guys he fell in love with his striking though, to further the problem he never developed it beyond a big haymaker right.

GSP would have always had his number but he was certainly good enough to achieve more than he did in his UFC career. For whatever reasons it never worked out for him.
 
He was decent for his era. but Koscheck had surgery in 2011, and after that he was never the same, he slowed down quite a bit after that. AKA just kills fighters...
 
Kos was good but could have been much better. That's how I see it. He's wrestling was awesome and he had power.

Too bad for him GSP was around.
 
Everybody loved to hate him..he made it so fuckign easy

He's like a form of of that high school kid that everybody pretended to like but actually hated but were too scared to stand up to him.. now that he's on TV we can call him down without actually facing him
 
Whilst a martial artist could hang at the top with high school wrestling experience alone, he was prominent but now fighter's are more rounded he is a none-entity.
 
HI SCOTT NEWMAN said:
He was decent for his era. but Koscheck had surgery in 2011, and after that he was never the same, he slowed down quite a bit after that. AKA just kills fighters...
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Yeah this is important to mention. He was never the same after the beating GSP gave him. That and training at that dungeon sparring guys like prime Cain for years did him no favors.
 
Dietrich Häling said:
Whilst a martial artist could hang at the top with high school wrestling experience alone, he was prominent but now fighter's are more rounded he is a none-entity.
Click to expand...
I get what you're saying, but his wrestling was hardly high school level. His double leg was just about as good as you'll see in MMA. Right up there with prime GSP and Chael.
 
He is a good fighter. Some of the best takedowns ever. In the second GSP fight he defended well and scored his own takedowns. Just he has poor fight IQ. That was always his problem, he didn't use his skillset to the best of his ability. He forgot he was a wrestler at times and tried to bang and that cost him. Like in the Paulo Thiago fight. If he had better IQ he would of been able to mix it up better. As he had good power in his hands. And arguably the best wrestling in his division when he wanted to use it. He rarely failed takedowns. He even got down Robbie Lawler in their fight. He was so explosive and athletic. A cliche term these days but he actually was. I hope he can do well in Bellator. But sometimes he is just dumb.

 
Josh was not a great fighter. he had some huge wins including Rumble which to this day I cant understand how the hell he won that fight. But josh had a great chin for a while and huge balls. I think he handled the Javier thing like a bitch but I respect his fighting spirit and his fearlessness. He pulled some shenanigans during some fights but he always showed up. At best I think he would be a fringe 15-20 today in his prime. Tough fight for anyone due to the wrestling and good chin.
 
Koscheck turned into a good fighter considering he got his start in mma with one month of striking training.

Second fight with gsp ended his career. He has never been the same since he sustained the nerve damage in his eye after being jabbed by gsp a hundred times.

Soon as he gets hit on the eye now, he shuts down.
 
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Who else was shocked when this happened? From Thiago of all people. lol
 
JohnyBrabo said:
Yeah this is important to mention. He was never the same after the beating GSP gave him. That and training at that dungeon sparring guys like prime Cain for years did him no favors.
Click to expand...
yup true. I remember ages ago he did a FB post saying he was doing some grappling with Cain that morning. I was thinking WTF, thats a terrible way to train, its not a good idea for a WW to be grappling with a HW like that, its just gonna cause injuries, even if Cain is gentle, he can still fall on him the wrong way. Madness. AKA is a death trap. It seemed Koscheck had problems with his eye too, I think he was finding it hard to see at times. do you remember every fight he kept blinking so much with his eyes and rubbing it?. it happened like 4 fights in a row.
 
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