Josh Koscheck Makes Epic Heel Turn at UFC 113

Josh Koscheck hasn't exactly been the fan favorite of the UFC, ever since he was one of the bad boys on season 1 of The Ultimate Fighter.  His instigation of Chris Leben and overall attitude got under the skin of many viewers but what stood out to me were his fighting skills.  He was still very raw, relying almost entirely on his wrestling to blanket his opponents.  That style of fighting has never been fan friendly, but I would say that of all the fighters that have ever appeared on The Ultimate Fighter, Koscheck is one of the most improved.  Koscheck has obviously put a lot of effort into his striking and it has shown with several knockouts.  Josh had gotten back into my good graces after reeling off several impressive victories recently, and then he whipped out one of the most dramatic "heel" post-fight speech at UFC 113.

If you don't know what a heel is, it's a professional wrestling term for "the bad guy".  Think of characters in the WWE that insult the crowd, low blow their opponents and cheat.  Josh didn't cheat, but he channeled his inner "Iron Sheik" after his fight with Paul Daley was over and fully embraced the heel persona.

Paul Daley had just sucker punched him after the fight, and when Joe Rogan asked Josh about it, he completely ignored the question and took a huge sucker punch of his own, at the Montreal crowd who had been booing him for much of the fight.

Hey, don't worry! The Pittsburgh Penguins are gonna kick your ass next week. Yeah, and then I'm gonna beat St-Pierre so you guys are gonna lose twice. How 'bout that?  That's right Montreal!

This brought a cascade of boos from the crowd, and I'm sure many fans hated it.  But guess what?  I LOVED IT!!!!  It was hilarious!  Some may say this reminded them of Brock Lesnar's embarrassing post fight taunting speech at UFC 100, but this wasn't vulgar, it was funny.  He hit the Canadian crowd right where it hurts, their hockey and their GSP.  He didn't talk about "laying with his wife", insult his opponent or rip the sponsors, this was pure antagonism at its finest.

I'm not even sure why the crowd was booing Koscheck in the first place.  He was executing an eerily similar gameplan that their beloved Georges St. Pierre displayed in his last 2 title defenses: stay standing long enough to take your opponent down.  Once on the ground, Koscheck tried to end the fight twice with chokes, but Paul Daley persevered.

Maybe the crowd was reacting to Koscheck hamming it up after a failed knee attempt by Daley when Josh was still on the ground.  The replay clearly showed that Daley's knee barely grazed Koscheck's curly hair, but Josh acted like he'd been hit with a sledgehammer.  This was the second time Koscheck has dramatized an illegal strike to gain a couple minutes to recover in his last two fights, and I'm sure that hasn't gone over well with the crowd either.

Regardless, this now sets up a monstrous title fight down the road between Koscheck and St. Pierre as well as two very opposite coaching personalities on season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter.  Some may knock Koscheck for having already lost to GSP nearly 3 years ago but you have to remember that Josh is the last person to even win a round against the current welterweight champ.  This matchup forecasts to be ratings gold.  Whether you are tuning in because you love him or you hate him, you will likely be tuning in.  And that's all that matters.

Photo via 6th-round.com