Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson Set for UFC 106 Co-Main Event
Welterweights Josh Koscheck and Anthony Johnson have agreed to square off in the co-main event of UFC 106 on November 21 in Las Vegas, according to Sherdog.
Koscheck revealed on Twitter Tuesday that he’d be co-headlining the pay-per-view event, and while initial speculation focused on Matt Hughes, the knockout artist Johnson was ultimately tapped for the short-notice addition to the event.
Koscheck (13-4), who had been scheduled to fight Mike Pierce at UFC Fight Night 20 in January, bounced back from an upset loss to newcomer Paulo Thiago with a first-round knockout of Frank Trigg in September.
Johnson (8-2) missed weight for Saturday’s UFC 104, but won his third-straight with a 41-second knockout of Yoshiyuki Yoshida.
UFC 106 is headlined by Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin after Brock Lesnar withdrew from his scheduled headlining title defense against Shane Carwin on Monday due to an extended illness and the fight was postponed to UFC 108 on January 2.
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Pictured: Anthony Johnson
Tags: Anthony Johnson, Josh Koscheck
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I like this fight. Despite all the criticism of this card, you can’t fault the UFC for putting this matchup together. I think the event is definitely purchase worthy.
Crazy AJ goes from opening fight to Co-Main event in 28 days.
Poor Kos. I see this going the way it did when Kos faced Alves. He can’t handle big hitters like Rumble. He should work to get his wrestling to a top notch level and keep Rumble down or he will get KO’ed. Good fight though, just a little short of being a co-main event.
all you turds who were talking crap about this card can now! kiss my grits because this card is amazing now……..super awesome fight……….i hope kos trys to stand with aj because if he does it will for sure be lights out
Yeah, Kos is definitely going to need to work his take downs if he wants to survive this.
as much as i love this fight and its really been a long time coming. as well as AJ deserves this fight. BUT we are talking about this fight REPLACING lesner/carwin…. thats a hard fight to make up for. love how ufc is trying to fix this card but it will never be good as the original :/
Hope Koscheck gets put down in this fight. I’ve never liked the guy but you can’t fault his wrestling. This is a good chance for Rumble to go up in my estimation.
Seems everyone is on the same page here. This will also be a good test for Johnson to see if he even has a shot to hang in there with a guy like GSP. If he can’t defend Koscheck’s takedowns, he’ll end up being another victim if he ends up with a title shot within the year.
@gun
Im one of those turds and im still sayin this is not near the caliber of fights that have been on the normal cards as of late
What I can’t figure out is what sort of MMA fan considers a fight like Griffin-Ortiz not worthy of main event status, let alone worth the buy-in?
With the quasi-retirement of Chuck Liddell notwithstanding, right now Forrest Griffin is probably one of the most popular MMA fighters in the planet, not to mention a NY Times bestselling author.
Tito Ortiz is one of this sport’s first breakout stars, and to this day had a loyal and vigorous fanbase.
We also have the classic “nice guy” versus “a$$hole” dynamic in full play, not to mention a rematch of a hotly disputed earlier fight between 2 former 205 champions.
If thats not a main event match, then I don’t know what the He11 is.
When you factor in some of the other 106 fights, plus Rumble and Kos, you get a top shelf event.
Denying 106 is a good card doesn’t make it true, just like when Dana tries to con all of us that this is a great season of TUF does it make it any more true…
I dont know how deep your pockets are but UFC 106 will be watched at BWW. You are definetly right that Tito and Forrest have HUGE drawing power to the casual fan and it will definetly be a good fight. Just not as epic as Rua v Machida, Couture v Nog, Brock v Mir. We have just been spoiled by the UFC and seeing to guys with a combined record of 0-4-1 (granted they were beat by good guys) is not worth the $55 bucks… But will get treated out to BWW.
Just to be clear, I’m fine with someone not wanting to or not being able to drop $55 on any UFC event.
What caught my attention was some posts here and there that somehow indicated that Griffin-Ortiz was somehow not “main event worthy”…
There’s nothing wrong with watching a UFC card at B-Dubs. That is the venue of choice for the Bizzes and the rest of our group. Hot waitresses (when they’re not males…), good food… Problem is that by the time I’m done, I might as well have coughed up $50 and watched it at home…
Good point, bsbiz.
Its been my experience that the average UFC fan spends as much if not more money watching an event at a public venue than they would at home.
But hey, as long as you’re watching, Dana White has done his job…
Well I hope Johnson is 100% for the fight even though it’s on short notice. Definitely one of the fights I cannot wait to see but I just have a feeling the longer this fight goes the more edge will shift to Kos. He’s the superior wrestler and I still feel his striking is vastly underrated. Should be a good fight but I am taking Kos.
Since there are only four fights rumored on ppv are they going to move up one of the prelim bouts to the main card? Anyone know?
As of right now it hasn’t been announced but I’d be surprised if Rosholt and Grove wasn’t moved up.
Really, I figured it would be Amir vs. Baroni, if it already hasn’t been moved up.
I think Rosholt v Grove would be the more interesting match-up. Amir versus Baroni could make the card anyways but I don’t see that fight being much at all.
thanks for the clarification Justin
They better move Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira to the main card!
I think it already is now
*Officially* the only main card bouts right now are Tito v. Forest, and Hazelett v. Parisyan. Add unofficially Kos v. Rumble, and Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. My guess is one or both of Baroni v. Sadollah, or Saunders v. Davis will make the main card.
Kos really needs to forget about his ever “improving” striking game as rogain puts it, holster his big right and go back to his bread and butter. If he tries to stand with AJ he’ll end up a pile of Rumble rubble. This is also a good test for AJ to see where his takedown defense is assuming KOS shoots. If he can’t stuff KOS’ takedowns he will certainly be on his back the whole fight if he gets his shot at The Greatness.
If he can’t stuff Kos’ takedowns he won’t have to ever worry about GSP…
still gutted bout lesner but seeing rumble put a beating on koscheck makes up for it.good way to get back in danas good books by taking this fight on short notice,hope he gets down to 170.rumble 1st round tko
i think for Johnson, the timing is right. he is ready to make the leap to some more credible opponents.
awsome fight. im so glad that in NZ ppvs are only 25$ nz which i think is like 18 or 19 us dollar so any card that ufc throws is getting watchd
i wonder if any of the fighters themselves ever read comments like these. they have to at least visit the site, but reading critisizm as such will only help their respective games.
LETS GET READY TO …….. R U M B L E
I was waiting for someone to go there…
Wow i love this match up. I hope Kos will get man handled. Looking foward to this fight. Very good fighters both in the top ten imo.
IMO the winner of this fight is more deserving of a title shot than the Swick/Hardy winner. But that just me.
In a perfect world Rumble KO’s Kos and Alves KO’s Fitch. Then those two throw down for an epic #1 contender fight.
You mean an epic 2 minutes
if that was a fight someone would be sleeping quickly(alves-rumble)
Ya pretty much.
dont like kos as a person but love him as a fighter… I think Rumble wont be able to stuff the takedowns and Kos by UD
Do you know him personally?
We did get to learn a lot about him on TUF.
i dont think kos will be able to take aj down, aj has good wrestling and a great reach and has way more power than paulo thiago ,i think kos will try to stike with him and get put to sleep quickly
i think this is going to be one of them sleeper cards,that you look at first and kind of shrug your shoulders.And then after you watch it you say,that was definatly worth the money.Gonna be alot of standing and trading.
long as they don’t stand and trade like tuf 10 zombies sonuds good to me.
I am no fan of Josh Koscheck but someone explain to me how the hell Anthony Johnson gets a co-main event fight against Josh Koscheck after failing to make weight by 6 lbs in his last fight, not even a week ago?
Why the UFC is rewarding anyone who failed to make weight is BEYOND me.
With that being said I can see this fight only going one way. Anthony Johnson KO’ing the ****e out of Josh Koscheck in the first round.
The UFC knows he didnt make weight for a reason, due to injury. Plus who else could they get to come in?
Well AJ didn’t get KO of the night $$$ due to the fact that he did miss weight, hell Thiago Alves got a title shot after missing weight v Hughes (tho on short notice I believe), and we all know (assuning you do as well) that Dana “apreciates” when a fighter takes a fight on short notice, sooo due to Lesnar v Carwin being scratched they needed someone to step up and have a fight, both KOS and AJ did that hence co~main event!
Alves raped Kos before he got the title shot(in fairness to Kos he took it on 2 weeks notice)
I keep hearing and reading that AJ’s gonna knock out kos.Well i’m gonna go out on a limb and say that kos is gonna ko AJ.More experiance,and i think kos’s wrestling backround well overshadows the fact that he also has pretty quick and heavy hands himself.
I love this fight. Great Matchup but it will end in KO or TKO either way. I personally love both guys.
I either see AJ Ko’ing Koscheck late 1st rd or Kos Ko’ing AJ 3rd rd.
Good Call Chrisl Kos Wrestling will play a strong factor in the later rds.
I like A. J. but to even mention his name with GSP in a fight right now is down right disrespectful!!!!
A. J. Gotta really work on his boxing skill {which is coming along good but he doesn’t move his head} and BJJ to even be a contender, any decent Bjj if they get him on the ground will finish AJ. I believe Alves, Swick, Fitch would give him all kinda problems…IMHO
If Rumble can make weight, and improve his takedown defense, he stands a good chance of beating Koscheck…
Kos’s standup is terrible….if only he could put his ego aside and go back to his bread and butter.
Perhaps you should ask Yoshida how his stand up is…
very good point dbiz……I agree that Kos’s standup isn’t as great as his wrestling, but to say his standup is terrible?
Or ask Frank Trigg about it.
Kos has power in this hands and decent accuracy but his technic of striking isn’t the best. Ya Yoshida and Trigg did go to sleep, because of his power, but it wasn’t poetry in motion, like Anderson / Lyoto but it not terrible tho.
To say his striking isn’t as strong as his wrestling isn’t saying much. He is a former D1 National Champion.
His striking is vastly improved and if he didn’t try to show up Paulo Thiago he picks him apart and isn’t KO’d.
Guys I would have really liked to see AJ fight Chris “Lights out” Lytle. I know KOS beat him but KOS will want to take this to the ground and Lytle would stand up with him. Lytle’s stand up is much better than KOS and he could bang with AJ (KOS wanted no part in the standup in their fight, AKA told him to bring it down).
I think AJ is still suspect on his feet and a guy like Lytle could solve that. He is not the 170 gatekeeper for nothing.
The problem is that he is not a big enough name to co-headline and they need to save this event.
CM
Great call on a Lytle-Rumble fight.
Maybe Joe Silva should keep that in mind when the UFC launches in Indianapolis, whish is Lytle’s hometown…
KOS has effective stand up beacause
the takedown threat is big so you dont wanna be too light footed against
him .then… whammy!
pretty much.
People who realize Ortiz will probably never reach main event status again in his career.
Personally I am much more interested in Kos Rumble.. even if it’s just to see Kos get messed up real bad LOL
UFC card have just gotten so good lately that a card like this ends up being meh even tho it is solid.. UFC cards for 50$ a month can no longer just get away with being “solid” IMO.. free online streams or a spot at the local sports bar end up being the way to see these lesser cards.