Josh Koscheck Is The Most Natural “Bad Guy” In The UFC Today

By MATT BOONE
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer

Josh Koscheck may not have had the most exciting performance in winning a unanimous decision over Paul Daley on Saturday night in Montreal but one thing is for sure, now that UFC 113 is over there's still plenty of Koscheck discussion going around. The reason for that at its' root is simple: Josh Koscheck is the most natural “bad guy” in the UFC. Brock Lesnar may have a right to that title as well, but Koscheck is the veteran champion of UFC “bad guys.” Three incidents in his fight with Daley will garner more hatred towards Koscheck and give Lesnar a run for UNDISPUTED “bad guy” champion of the UFC.

During the first round of the fight there was a situation where Daley threw an illegal knee to the face of Koscheck while he was still on the ground. Replays showed that the knee did not touch Koscheck, unless you count making his hair flip-flop up and down in slow-motion. Koscheck's hair was a semi-focal point of the build-up to this fight, by the way. How freaky is that? The replays showed one other thing: Koscheck doing his best pro wrestling selling of an injury. Doesn't that sound familiar? Koscheck is becoming a slo-mo replay king with these lately. It's a different kind of heel heat to have, but it's heat regardless. Hell, it generated a loud (and passionate) “fuck you Koscheck” chant from about 99.999% of the audience at the Bell Centre in Montreal. It also prompted a loud “GSP” chant from the people. More on that later.

The second incident in the Koscheck-Daley fight was one that could have went the other way on Kos's “bad guy” reputation. He almost went to sympathy town, but the world's best bad guy can't have that. For the final minute or so of the fight there seemed to be a lot of verbal jousting going on. More so than the actual physical fighting, for the record. Daley was visibly pissed and when the horn sounded to end the fight, he let it be known. Daley hit Koscheck with a blatant cheap-shot punch to the face. At the UFC 113 post-fight press conference, Koscheck called it Daley's best punch of the fight. It's also a shot that prompted Dana White to ban Paul Daley from the UFC. Clearly Daley did all of that to himself, even if Koscheck was taunting him verbally. But in a way you could say Koscheck “sent him packing”, similar to Chris Leben on The Ultimate Fighter 1. By the way, how cool was that Koscheck post-fight moment in time? Speaking of Koscheck's post-fight brilliance, let's get to my third and favorite incident from the UFC 113 fight.

The third incident that came out of the fight: Koscheck's mastery of a “bad guy” promo. How awesome was Koscheck's post-fight interview at UFC 113? That had to be the coolest bad guy thing I've ever seen. It certainly at least belongs in the same discussion as Lesnar's anti-Bud Light and pro-“hop on your wife” promo at UFC 100. During the interview, Koscheck made himself a lifetime heel to all of Canada by saying the Pittsburgh Penguins would kick the Montreal Canadiens ass in the next NHL playoff game. He paused for a moment before his face lit up and you could see he discovered his next bad guy gem. Koscheck followed up by saying something to the effect of “and I'm gonna kick GSP's ass, so you're all gonna lose twice [obnoxious laugh]!” Beautiful. It's pretty much a lock that if GSP-Koscheck happens in Canada and Koscheck wins, we'll have our first full-scale riot in the UFC. It won't be a pretty sight.

Dana White announced before the fight that the winner of Koscheck-Daley would coach TUF 11 alongside GSP and then fight for the UFC Welterweight title after the show. Koscheck won. He called out GSP after the fight and trashed his home town of Canada. He's the best “bad guy” in the UFC, certainly at 170, and he'll be on television for a few months opposite maybe the best natural good guy in the UFC. I can't wait. Koscheck – you're a bad motha.

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