By Paul Daley - The time for jokes and fun – and talking – is over. It is time to make weight, stay healthy, and knock Josh Koscheck out at UFC 113 in Montreal, Canada this Saturday.
By Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley
The time for jokes and fun – and talking – is over. It is time to make weight, stay healthy, and knock Josh Koscheck out at UFC 113 in Montreal, Canada this Saturday.
Koscheck has come out with a statement he’s gonna now take me down and choke me out, as if that wasn’t his plan from the moment he signed the contract. Of course he wants to take me down as soon as he possibly can. That’s his strength, that’s what he thinks is my weakness, so unless the bleach has gone to his brain, that’s what he’s gonna do.
Even when he was saying he was standing with me and all that, I was hearing it and thinking ‘Of course you are… riiiiiiight!’
If he wants to do me a favour and stand with me, great, thank you Mr. Koscheck and good night. But I know he’s not going to do that and I have prepared. He’s going to shoot for the takedown almost immediately; that’s exactly what he’s gonna do and everyone who has watched even one or two of our fights knows that.
Every second he’s on his feet is another chance for me to end the fight.
I am not a guy who spends hours and hours watching footage of opponents. I have seen most of his fights over the years, if not all of them, because I am a MMA fan and I watch almost all the big fights. And this time I did watch a couple of his best performances on tape just to remind myself a little of his style, just to see the ways in which he goes for takedowns, but I only watched a few times.
I don’t think watching a highlight reel of your opponent is a great idea. You can get too familiar with a style and if your opponent is a top fighter, and I’ve never said Kos isn’t, he can change it up a little and confuse you. I am going in there expecting Koscheck to shoot for the takedown, but he will know I am watching for that and will have prepared something for him.
That’s why we fight: to see who is the best, who is the toughest and who has the best plan.
What I do best is knock people out and mess them up with strikes. I want to keep it on my feet. It is no secret. What is a secret is how I am gonna set this all up. I can be patient, I can feint, and I can trick you into leaving your chin wide open and explode on you.
It kind of annoys me that people keep asking me if my takedown defense has improved since fighting Jake Shields two years ago. Of course it has. I lost a fight, so of course I want to improve; I always want to get better. On the night against Shields I was pretty bad; I don’t even like talking about it. That wasn’t really me at my best, and I am still mad about it, but I moved on and I’ve worked hard to improve.
What annoys me is that people aren’t giving me credit for stuffing some of Shields’ takedowns. I stuffed a lot more than Dan Henderson, the Olympic wrestler, did but I get no credit for that. Shields took Henderson down at will for five rounds and kept him there. I at least stuffed some of them, and I am a welterweight while Henderson has trained in this for years and is a light heavyweight.
On Saturday, all I am going for is another win. I will leave the Octagon with another KO win under my belt, and Kos will leave with his teeth in a bag.
