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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Tomorrow night brings a great free event on Spike TV as the UFC presents Fight Night 16: Fight for the Troops. With the event taking place at Fort Bragg and the fundraiser going for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, this looks to be an exciting and unique event. For one of the night's headline fighters, however, this potentially could be the end of the line in the UFC.
Josh Koschek comes into this fight tomorrow, as he says, focused only on his opponent, Yoshiyuki Yoshida. However, there's a lingering back end to this fight that, win or lose, could make it Koscheck's final UFC fight for the foreseeable future.
For Koscheck, the perpetual bad guy persona that was developed on the original season of the Ultimate Fighter has begun to shed; and with each fight he's become one of the most well rounded welterweight fighters in the sport. His losing effort against Thiago Alves, while disappointing for him, did wonders in winning over fans that had previously, like myself, come to despise the image he began in 2004 on TUF. So why is it that a fighter as talented and as recognized as Koscheck is could be out of the organization after tomorrow?
We just have to go back to the Jon Fitch fiasco from last month, in which Dana White in effect swore off his dealings with the American Kickboxing Academy (Fitch's camp as well as Koscheck's), in part due to difficulties in signing Fitch to their exclusive video game rights contract. Fitch of course was then cut from the UFC for about 24 hours before circumventing Dana White and speaking with Lorenzo Fertitta, finally signing the video game deal and coming back into the UFC fold. At the time Dana said that Koscheck would still get this fight with Yoshida because he promised him another fight for taking the Alves fight on short notice. His future with the company from there was unclear.
Well here we are the day before the event, and it's the video game contract that puts the speculation in motion once again. On this past weekend's episode of ESPN.com's MMALive, Franklin McNeil said that Koscheck to date had not signed the infamous video game likeness rights contract; in fact, not only had he not signed it, but McNeil stated that Koscheck had no intention of signing the deal.
This begs the question, what happens next, then? If Dana White is to be believed, it wasn't the contract itself that was the breaking point with the Fitch situation, it was dealing with AKA and the management there. If that's the case, perhaps with Koscheck being one of the original TUF guys there's a different loyalty there. On the other hand, should he lose to Yoshida tomorrow night, that could give Dana the ammo to cut ties on the spot. Consecutive losses for any fighter in the UFC can spell potential disaster for their chances of staying with the organization, just ask Jorge Gurgel. With the added fuel from the Fitch fire still lingering, a loss could spell the end for this very talented fighter.
And then what happens even if he wins? We'll find out in the coming weeks how much the video game contract had to do with the Fitch situation if Koscheck doesn't sign and then finds himself on the outs. At least for his part, Koscheck seems content with concentrating only on Yoshida, and not letting the speculation enter his mind as he prepares for this fight.
Whatever happens in the main event tomorrow night, it would be a shame for this video game deal to cost a very talented fighter a chance to fight the best fighters in his weight class. I've come around on Koscheck, as both a person and a fighter, and there's no good reason why we should be even discussing a possible departure from the organization that he and his Ultimate Fighter castmates helped resurrect. So here's to tomorrow night, to what will hopefully be a good, entertaining main event fight for those troops in attendance, and for the fans around the country watching at home. And here's to Josh Koscheck staying where he belongs, right at home in the UFC.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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