UFC 124: St. Pierre vs. Koscheck II Main Card Breakdown
This past Saturday we watched as a new Ultimate Fighter was crowned in the TUF 12 season finale. This Saturday, December 11th, the two coaches get their chance to get in the cage and settled their feud inside the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. UFC 124: St. Pierre vs. Koscheck II features six other Canadian fighters along with Canada’s poster boy, Georges St.-Pierre.
Due to the Video Game Awards being aired in the time slot there will be no preliminary fights shown on SpikeTV, but there will be two fights shown for free on ufc.com. Now let’s take a minute to breakdown the main card fights and see how each fighter matches up with his opponent.
The first fight of the PPV card, and what many are already pegging as potential Fight of the Night, is a Welterweight bout between Thiago “Pitbull” Alves (17-7) and John “Doomsday” Howard (14-5). Alves and Howard are both coming off a loss in their last fight (last two for Alves) and they both desperately need a win here if they want to continue to be taken seriously in the division. Alves has been battling injuries and has not won a fight since 2008 in which he beat #1 Contender Josh Koscheck. Howard, on the other hand, has gone 4-1 in the same time frame, all with the UFC. Thiago Alves is a definite step up in competition for Howard, and will be interesting to see how he can hang with the upper tier of the division.
Up next, Joe “Daddy” Stevenson (31-11) faces off against Mac Danzig (19-8-1) in the Lightweight Division. Stevenson has gone 2-2 and picked up three “Fight of the Night” bonuses his last four fights; his last fight being a loss to George Sotiropolous. Danzig’s last fight ended controversially as the referee mistakenly thought he had gone unconscious after being put in a choke. The replay clearly showed that Danzig was not in any trouble of passing out, but the fight had already been stopped and nothing could be done. A loss here for either man could easily result in being dismissed from the company. There is obviously a reason why these two are on the main card and not the prelims, so hopefully they will pull through and put on an exciting fight.
As we continue along, we have Jim Miller (18-2) taking on Charles Oliveira (14-0) in the Lightweight division. This fight definitely looks good on paper. Miller’s only losses came at the hands of current Lightweight champion Frank Edgar and #1 Contender Gray Maynard. Ever since that loss to Maynard, Miller has been dominant in all his fights. His opponent, Charles Oliveira, has two fights in the Octagon, resulting in two “Submission of the Night” bonuses. When these two BJJ specialists get in the cage, it could turn into a grappling match decided by whoever shows all their all-around skills. You definitely don’t want to miss this one.
The Co-Main Event of the night features two of the tallest competitors on the UFC roster as 6’11” Stefan “Skyskraper” Struve (20-4) takes on 6’7” Sean “Big Sexy” McCorkle (10-0) in the Heavyweight division. Struve and McCorkle have two things in common, other than their height: they are both very underrated and the majority of their wins have come by way of submission. Leading up to the fight, McCorkle has taken a page out of The Chael Sonnen Handbook for Fight Promotion and has taken to the internet to excessively trash talk, make fun of, and make jokes at the expense of Stefan Struve. While Struve has fired back now and then, he says he is more focused on the fight itself. With the tension between the two combined with McCorkle’s mindset of “every fight could be my last”, this could definitely be one of the most exciting of the night.
Finally, the moment we have all been waiting for: The Main Event of the Evening. It was announced in May that Georges “Rush” St. Pierre (20-2) and Josh Koscheck (15-4) would be opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter and fight for the Welterweight Championship at the end of the season. For anybody who watched this season of TUF, you know that Kos tried as hard as he could to get under GSP’s skin but he couldn’t get much out of him. However, in recent interviews GSP has claimed that he is recalling Kos’ antics and using them as motivation for this fight. During his interview with Joe Rogan on the TUF Finale last week GSP said that he wants “to get the fight over and done with so he can beat Koscheck and move on with his life” and Koscheck responded simply by chuckling. The last time these two fought, over three years ago, GSP was victorious by way of a decision. In three years, both fighters have gotten much better and will be two totally different fighters than they were back then. On paper, GSP is superior to Koscheck in every aspect of the game, but Koscheck is fueled by the hatred he’s gotten and the doubt in many people’s eyes. He is determined to go in and shock the world and become the new UFC Welterweight Champion.
With just a few more days until the final UFC event of the year, tensions build, minds get prepared, last-minute game plans on configured and the countdown begin. Where will you be when one of the most despised fighters takes on one of the most popular fighters for the UFC Welterweight Championship? What will you be doing when two of the tallest fighters in the company square off in a King Kong vs. Godzilla-esque battle.
Tuned into UFC 124 on PPV at 10pm ET/7pm PT and don’t forget to watch the two preliminary fights on UFC.com.
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Aspiring chef turned MMA writer after financial issues prevented me from pursuing my first dream. Ever since I started watching MMA, I've read up about it and talk about it all the time and with the encouragement of family and friends I finally decided to actively pursue a career in writing about it.Subscribe
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