Koscheck's Right Hand Carries Him to KO Win over Yoshida
Thomas Gerbasi, UFC - It used to be that you would always see welterweight contender Josh Koscheck’s looping right hand coming. But with each passing fight, Koscheck shortened and honed the punch, and Wednesday night, in front of a Crown Coliseum filled with US servicemen and women, he showed the fruits of his labors as he knocked out Yoshiyuki Yoshida in the first round of the main event of the UFC Fight for The Troops card, held to benefit the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
By Thomas Gerbasi
FAYETTEVILLE, NC, December 10 – It used to be that you would always see welterweight contender Josh Koscheck’s looping right hand coming. But with each passing fight, Koscheck shortened and honed the punch, and Wednesday night, in front of a Crown Coliseum filled with US servicemen and women, he showed the fruits of his labors as he knocked out Yoshiyuki Yoshida in the first round of the main event of the UFC Fight for The Troops card, held to benefit the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
“What an honor to fight in front of all you guys,” said Koscheck, addressing the troops after his third win of 2008.
Both fighters started the bout cautiously, with Yoshida scoring with sporadic kicks. In the second minute, Koscheck started opening up with his trademark right hand and he landed a couple just as range-finders. Once he got his distance though, the rights came with more damaging intentions, and after one solid shot froze Yoshida, a second one sent him down and out, with referee Mario Yamasaki’s halting of the contest at the 2:15 mark merely a formality.
Tokyo’s Yoshida, who remained on the canvas while being tended to by commission doctors, was removed from the Octagon on a stretcher as a precautionary measure. He was later treated and released from a local hospital for a concussion.
With the win, Koscheck improves to 14-3. Yoshida falls to 10-3.
