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Josh Koscheck says he’s happy that Paul Daley’s back fighting, thinks GSP manipulates the media

By Zach Arnold | September 22, 2010

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A terrifically amusing interview with Josh Koscheck on last week’s Ultimate Fighter podcast that I am just getting around to transcribing. You have to listen to it in full to get his comments on wrestling in MMA and other topics.

For starters, his opinion on Paul Daley’s comeback in MMA and the 30-day suspension by the Quebec commission:

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “What are your thoughts on the 30-day suspension? You think that was OK?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “Yeah, to me. I don’t give two [expletive], man. *laughs* Guess what? I won the fight. I’m fighting for the title. I got paid, you know, I don’t care, man. It’s just, it is what it is. It’s entertainment and, you know, at the end of the day we’re in here to create drama, we’re in here to make money and provide for our families and provide for our self so, you know, good for Paul Daley. I’m glad that he has a new contract now and he’s fighting again and I’m happy for him.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “So you don’t hold resentment to him?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “No. God, no. Heh heh heh heh. Never.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “All right, Josh. It’s been a few months now. You’ve mentioned in the past that you said something to him in the last seconds of the fight that may have caused him to kind of overreact. It’s been a few months, tell us what you said. C’mon.”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “Um, yeah, it was just like in his ear I was like, [expletive], I was like, you can’t even get off the bottom because I fought a conservative fight just because of circumstances of, you know, the pressure I had coming in there and I was just like, GET UP, so he started eye-gouging and I was like, you [expletive]. I was like, get up you [expletive]. He’s like, let me up! I was like, he goes, let me up, I’ll knock you out! And I go, you ain’t knocking [expletive] out, this is MMA, this ain’t [expletive] boxing, I was like get off your ass and get up and he kept eye-gouging so I leapt up to the ref and then he stood up I was like, this guy’s [expletive] nuts, he’s going to do something crazy and I had my right hand up, you know, and you could see him throw a left hook because I know he throws a left hook, that’s his knockout punch, and he kind of caught my glove, caught my head. *laughs* And so I want to thank Paul Daley for getting me on ESPN highlights and all the good stuff, so it was a good PR stunt.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “See, that’s what I was going to say, you’re always spinning this stuff into good for you, this is a good thing.”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “Yeah, it’s a great thing.”

He just got started. From there, he defended himself as to why he got a title shot against Georges St. Pierre and why he thinks St. Pierre is such a phony.

On why he deserves a title shot:

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “There are people who questioned you getting this title opportunity. So, before we even talk about that, I want to drop some knowledge on these people in that you are the last man to win a round against Georges St. Pierre. He’s won 25 straight rounds since you took round one against him in your UFC 74 fight. Did you know that?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “Yeah. You know, I thought that fight was pretty close and I think it was 2007 when I think I fought him. Just kind of underestimated Georges a little bit, you know, his skills he’s a very good athlete and he’s a competitor and he comes into the fight with a very good game plan so I knew that I had all the tools to beat him but I think in the first fight versus Georges St. Pierre that I definitely underestimated him and people have a tendency to forget in Mixed Martial Arts I would say very quickly and one of the things that they got to remember is that when I fought Georges a couple of years ago I was very raw to the sport, you know, very pretty much new to the sport and over the last three years my game has definitely evolved. I’ve definitely become a more complete fighter and a more hungry fighter.”

On why he thinks Georges St. Pierre is a phony and presents a false front to fans and media:

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “So, how important would it be for you winning a title? How important would that be for the Josh Koscheck brand?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “Well, for my brand you know this is the dream come true and you know for what I want in my life I got to win this title and to put myself into a position where my brand continues to grow, I can invest in more projects and I have aspirations of putting a lot of money in the bank and setting myself up to where I don’t need to ever work again so you know this is a big, important fight for me. Not only for financial reasons but for personal reasons and the personal reasons are that Georges St. Pierre beat me, you know, he comes in as a game-planner and he wants to make this fight a sporting event. Let’s see if we can outpoint him, take him down, you know, lay on him and not try to finish. Whereas I’m going to come into this fight thinking, you know, this is a street fight, I want to kick the shit out of him, I want to kill this guy, and that’s the difference between me and Georges St. Pierre. I come in to hurt people and he comes in to make it a sporting event.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “So you’re one of the people that criticize him because there seems to be two camps. Some people think that, you know, he came close to finishing Dan Hardy, had him a couple of submission attempts that looked relatively close. When he fought your buddy, Jon Fitch, you know he battered him up pretty good, just couldn’t get the finish. But you’re one of the people who finds room to be critical of him?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “Yeah, absolutely, when’s the last time he’s knocked somebody out? Ask yourself that question. Did you do the research on that?”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “Off the top of my head… I can’t remember.”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “There you go. Heh heh heh. When’s the last time I knocked somebody out? A couple of fights ago, you know. When’s the last time I submitted somebody, you know? I finish fights. I come to hurt you and he’s the game-planner, he comes to eek out a decision and he’ll even tell you, he’s even said it in interviews, you know he’s a boring fighter. He comes to just game-plan and he does what he does to do to win. I go in there and I make it a fight, I don’t want to go in there and make it a sporting event, you know. If I want to go watch a sporting event, I’ll go watch football or go watch a basketball game, those are sporting events. I’m coming to fight this guy and Georges best be ready for a fight because this isn’t going to be a sporting event.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “So would you be critical of yourself then if you won the belt but if you didn’t finish Georges?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “Uh, yeah, you know, obviously, yeah, I would be critical of myself. I mean, I want to finish him, you know, I go into every fight and I want to finish the fight so, you know, that’s the game plan, you know, the game plan is not to go in there and win a decision. The game plan is to go in there and knock him out or submit him and, you know, I want that bread, man. I knock out Georges St. Pierre out… I’m going to get paid. That’s what it’s about for me. So, I’m coming in there to make this a fight and he better be ready to fight. You know, this isn’t going to be a little sporting event, you know. If Montreal wants to go see a sporting event, they can go watch the Habs play hockey.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “Is this what you mean when in the beginning intro for The Ultimate Fighter this season, you had a quote you said ‘your fake ass is going to get whipped.’ Is that what you mean when you said that he’s more about the sporting event side of it than the fighting side of it?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “That’s probably a pretty good assessment on that and I just know that, you know, I’m not coming all the way to Montreal to, you know, obviously get my ass kicked in front of his hometown. That’s not happening. So, I believe that Georges carries a persona that he’s this clean, squeaky guy and he’s this ‘I’m Georges St. Pierre, I’m Canada’s best athlete, I got Under Armour sponsorship, I’m this, I’m that’ you know, he portrays to be this guy who’s this squeaky-clean guy but he’s not. Georges St. Pierre is, I believe he’s a fake and I’m going to prove that when I get to fight him on December 11th.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “So, what exactly do people say, they’re saying he’s rude to them and what is that…”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “He’s rude, he doesn’t want to do things, you know, yeah, exactly, so I mean that’s what it is. Georges wants to come across as the squeaky-clean guy and his image is so important. if I don’t like you, I’ll tell you. Heh. What you see is what you get with Josh Koscheck, you know. If I don’t like you, guess what? I’m going to tell you to kiss my ass, you know, I’m not afraid to tell you that and quite frankly, you know what? I don’t give a [expletive]. I don’t care if people don’t like me. But guess what? When you meet me and we get along and we click, you’re going to fall in love with me.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “Have you always felt this way about Georges or do you think he’s changed after becoming the champion as he’s putting on a different persona?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “I don’t know, I didn’t personally know Georges before so, you know, I don’t have a personal relationship with guys that I’m going to fight so I just don’t know him before. I’ve had interaction with him, seemed kind of cool but you know after The Ultimate Fighter I definitely have a different perspective of him.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “Without giving away much about the show because obviously we’re only in Episode 1 here, but what were those interactions like with him during the six weeks of taping?”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “I’ll just tell you this — I always do my part when it comes to entertaining and, you know, I definitely got some fuel from definitely seeing St. Pierre’s personality and seeing how he is, so that definitely fueled me up.”

MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “Why do you think he’s so beloved then? Because he is a very soft-spoken kind of guy, at least from what we see in the media.”

JOSH KOSCHECK: “He’s tricked all of you fools! He’s got your asses all [expletive] tricked. That’s why. God! I mean, you know, heh heh heh. At least with me I’m up front and I’m cool. I’ll be like, you might not like me but guess what? You know, that’s life. At least, you know what, I’m going to tell you. If you don’t like me, you should tell me, you know? I’m going to tell you if I don’t like you, right? But it’s like Georges, he’ll kiss your ass and he’ll fake it, you know. I’m not going to fake it, I’m going to tell you up front like, guess what? I don’t like you. It’s as simple as that, you know? I don’t know you, Mike, but if that was the case, I would tell you. Georges ain’t. He will fake it and he’d kiss your ass and he’d be like, ‘oh yeah, Mike, you’re doing a good job of this interview,’ and then he’d hang up that phone and be like, ‘the guy was a [expletive] douche bag, that interview sucked. What kind of [expletive] questions was he asking me?’ At least I’m going to tell you up front right to your face, Georges won’t. So that’s the way I look at it.”

Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

9 Responses to “Josh Koscheck says he’s happy that Paul Daley’s back fighting, thinks GSP manipulates the media”

  1. Zack says:

    It appears the ref should’ve pulled a point from Kos since he broke this rule:

    “# Using abusive language in the ring or fenced area”

  2. edub says:

    Does he not remember the fight against Daley? He came to get a sub or ride out a win in that fight…

  3. David M says:

    So Kos talks about how he was laying on top of Daley, and then rips on GSP for fighting conservatively..

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    I’m looking forward to GSP/Koscheck 2 as a fight.

    I could care less about their trash talking. Koscheck annoys me more. And I’ve heard GSP talking for years for various fights and really could care less about what he says anymore. Just want to see them fight.

    Even when I was watching UFC 119, I found myself not caring about the segments on Mir, Cro Cop, Sherk, or Nogueira. I already know about those guys. What interested me was the sutff on Bader and Dunham.

  5. Kalle says:

    Why would I even care what Koscheck has to say? He’s all but admitted everything he does is about getting negative attention. If he’s not going to act serious then I’ll just tune him out.

    Chael Sonnen atleast had the pure crazy entertainment value going for him. Koscheck just acts like a jerk, intentionally.

  6. David M says:

    This season looks good so far, and it is cool to see the two best mma gyms in the world going mano-a-mano.

  7. dawgbone says:

    In Koscheck’s last 7 fights he has 3 decisions.

    In GSP’s last 7 fights he has 4 decisions.

    Koscheck has arguably 2 fights against top 5 opponents in those 7 fights (Alves, Daley), St. Pierre has arguably 4 (Alves, Fitch, Hughes, Koscheck). You could toss in a BJ Penn if you want as well.

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