CHECK OUT THE UFC 74 RUNDOWN!!

Posted on | August 22, 2007 | 2 Comments

THE “other main event” FOR UFC 74

BY: -Jack J. Bratcher

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Folks, this Saturday night is marking one of the biggest events in UFC history with UFC 74 in Anaheim, California. The main event has the Heavyweight Title on the line with Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga, but in actuality there is another bout just as exciting and really a co-main event. I’m talking about the highly anticipated welterweight match between George St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck.

George St. Pierre, who holds a record of 13 wins and 2 losses, will be going up against Ultimate Fighter alumni Josh Koscheck, who has a record of 9 wins with only 1 loss. Many consider these two fighters to be the two best athletes in the UFC. George St. Pierre’s only losses were to Matt Hughes in 2004 and to the man who beat Matt Hughes for the Welterweight Title, Matt Serra.

Even though George St. Pierre lost to Matt Hughes back in 2004, he avenged that loss by defeating Matt Hughes in November 2006 for the Welterweight Title. Unfortunately for St. Pierre, he lost the Welterweight Title in April of this year against the current Welterweight Champion, Matt Serra. This will be St. Pierre’s first fight since his loss to Serra.

George St. Pierre looked amazing against Matt Hughes when he defeated Hughes for the title. George was striking from all angles, bobbing and weaving, moving in and out with speed and just dominated Matt Hughes like no one had ever done. St. Pierre looked like a machine or a video game character, moving with finesse and striking with pin-point accuracy, and it was incredible to watch. But, then in his first title defense against Matt Serra, he totally looked off his game. He did not look like the same person. Something was clearly wrong, and even though he was the heavy favorite and few people gave Serra a prayer in Hell, Serra spanked George St. Pierre decisively and took away St. Pierre’s most coveted possession, allowing him to only bask in his glory as Welterweight Champ less than 6 months. And just as quickly as St. Pierre had won that title, it was taken away.

Needless to say, this fight against Josh Koscheck is extremely important for George St. Pierre. It is his chance to prove that his title win was not the fluke, but his losing it was. No one can lose that much talent that fast. Something was off with St. Pierre when he fought Matt Serra and hopefully he and his training camp have fixed whatever it was that got off balance. For George St. Pierre to lose to Josh Koscheck would be devastating–extremely devastating–and if someone had just watched George beat Matt Hughes for the Welterweight Title last year and you asked that person right after seeing George’s performance in that fight, if Josh Koscheck could beat George St. Pierre, ninety-nine percent of the people without bi-focals would say there is no way in the world Josh Koscheck could beat George St. Pierre.

Actually after watching St. Pierre’s performance in that fight, I remember distinctively thinking…”I don’t see how anyone is going to be able to beat this guy.” But then you fast-forward five months to his next match, his first title defense, against Matt Serra and he didn’t even look like the same person. So the big question for Saturday night is….which George St. Pierre is going to show up to fight Josh Koscheck?

Josh Koscheck is coming off the biggest win of his career by defeating Diego Sanchez. Diego Sanchez was an Ultimate Fighter winner. He was undefeated. And he was the UFC’s golden boy. Diego Sanchez had looked unstoppable until he faced Josh Koscheck and was defeated by unanimous decision. Many consider Koscheck to be the best wrestler in the UFC with the credentials to back it up.

Everyone knows what a good wrestler Matt Hughes is. Koscheck is on a different level. He’s a top-of-the-food-chain collegiate wrestling champion. Now add to that, an athlete who is in phenomenal condition who has proven that he is only gettting better and better in all aspects of mixed-martial arts. With each new fight, we see Koscheck noticeably improving his striking. One of the most intriguing things about MMA is each person’s opportunity to grow in the sport. The Koscheck who was on the Ultimate Fighter program was almost exclusively a wrestler, showing little in the way of punches and kicks. But Kosheck is obviously determined to be a true contender and he knows he cannot rely just on wrestling. So we have seen with each new fight his striking becoming much more of a factor.

If he can take his strike game to the level of his wrestling game, Josh Koscheck will be a Titlle Holder. There’s no doubt about that. It would be inevitable. And from what we’ve seen so far, he’s well on his way. He looked great against Sanchez; the wrestler outboxing the striker…..something that couldn’t have happened a year or even six months earlier. That’s just how fast Josh Koscheck is improving. Never underestimate a man who goes to a place everyday where he has hired (spent his own money) a person to teach him how to become the very best boxer and kickboxer he can be. Never underestimate a man who had the determination and athletic ability and heart to become a world-class collegiate wrestling champion, take that same discipline and determination to MMA, and apply it to becoming the best stiker he can be.

One of the things I love most about the sport of Mixed-Martial Arts is the fact that it is ever evolving and each person in the sport can evolve with it. Look at a football player; he can learn to run faster, tackle harder, catch better and memorize plays, but in truth there’s just not a whole lot of new skills and techniques and personal evolution an individual can go through as a football player. And it’s the same thing for alot of sports. But there are some sports that can really push a person’s growth in extreme ways. Maybe that’s why we call some of them Extreme Sports. MMA is one of these. There’s always room for improvement in MMA. It is really the ultimate in terms of competition.

In UFC 74 we are going to witness some Extreme Competition. We will get to see Josh Koscheck; a man who has become the embodiment of evolution. It’s an awesome thing when you can visibly notice and recognize when a person has made drastic improvements to their fight game. And we will see Josh Koscheck get in the octagon with a man who has a lot to prove. You can also never underestimate a man who is fighting for his pride; a man who just won the most important achievement of his life and attained the very pinnacle and height of his career……but then had it stripped away from him like he never deserved it in the first place. What will a man do in a situation like that? How will he fight? Will he crumble before the pressure and give in to the demons that say he can never win that title again? Or will George St. Pierre dig deep within and display the finesse and aggressiveness that destroyed Matt Hughes? This is going to be a war. And I will be on the edge of my seat, or more likely standing, cheering as these guys lay it all on the line Saturday Night.

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