Erik Koch Expected to Face Jose Aldo at UFC 147
By Chris Leslie on April 25, 2012
It has been a tumultuous week of scheduling for UFC 147 but the dust finally appears to be settling as UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo is likely to face Erik Koch in the main event. According to MMAWeekly, the bout has not been officially signed but it has been confirmed by sources close to both parties.
Aldo had been expected to fight the winner of the “UFC on Fuel TV 3″ main event between Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung at UFC 149. That changed when the UFC moved an anticipated middleweight title rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen was moved from UFC 147 to UFC 148 in Las Vegas.
With Aldo’s fight date being moved up, it was difficult to expect that either Poirier or Jung would be able to be medically cleared, much less ready for a title fight, in little over a month.
Koch had originally been expected to face Poirier in February to decide to the number one contender until Koch suffered an injury. Now healed, the dynamic Duke Rufous product will look to take the title in the champion’s home nation.
UFC 147 is set for June 23 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and is expected to co-headlined by a middleweight bout between Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva. The event is also expected to have both the middleweight and featherweight finals of TUF Brazil, as well as a heavyweight bout between Fabricio Werdum and Mike Russow. No venue has currently been set as this post.
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Good fight but Jose aldos to good
This is better then Hioki. I understand that he did good over in Japan but his two fights in the UFC have been lackluster and I see him getting completely demolished by Aldo. Koch stands a better chance of lasting a round or two.
funny you should say that since Hioki was apparently offered the bout first but he feels he’s not ready yet.
I think he could take 5 more fights and still get demolished.
Interesting matchup Koch has some really good standup but beating Aldo is gonna be tough
How in gods name does koch deserve this fight in the first place???? Sure he’s nice, but has done nothing to earn it. Whatever happened to the porier/Korean zombie fight being for top contender? Koch was supposed to fight porier for that title, and pulls out, and then porier beats the eventual replacement, and now koch skips him? Yay a title fight for the sake of having a title fight whoopty do. This is the dumbness Dana does sometimes that keeps him always being kinda a jabrone.
Did you not read the actual article? Here I will copy and paste it for you
“Aldo had been expected to fight the winner of the “UFC on Fuel TV 3″ main event between Dustin Poirier and Chan Sung Jung at UFC 149. That changed when the UFC moved an anticipated middleweight title rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen was moved from UFC 147 to UFC 148 in Las Vegas.
With Aldo’s fight date being moved up, it was difficult to expect that either Poirier or Jung would be able to be medically cleared, much less ready for a title fight, in little over a month.”
Erik Koch is a solid choice to fight Aldo, since other top 10 contenders are either tied up or want one more win before they (possibly) face him. Koch is an exciting fighter, has a great attitude, gives good post-fight interviews, and always brings it to the Octagon. Opportunities come and go, and sometimes quickly, so seize it when you can as you never know if you’ll get the same opportunity in the future. Koch has a puncher’s chance, and I am hoping for a better outing than Chad Mendes had with Aldo. Good match-up in my opinion.
@The1 ok, but you didn’t answer anything else in my post. Everything I said still stands. This title fight is garbage and is a travesty to the contender process and aldo. Maybe I can have the title fight if koch gets hurt, since we have to have one due to time constraints….how are other people not mystified about this….
theres your mistake, there is no actual “contender process.” It’s why the UFC avoids an official ranking system. Title fights in the UFC are made of two things, necessity and timing. The UFC feels they have to make up for screwing the Brazilians so they give them a lesser title fight.
How do you think Jones originally fought for the title? The UFC had a need and Jones fit the timetable.
@Devin Maybe nobody should be given a title shot without the UFC consulting you first, huh? You are allowed to have ur opinion, but the reasons given in the article sufficiently explains why he was given the shot.
Like chris says there is no set formula to get a title shot, it has just as much to do with whats going on in your weight class as a whole as it does with your own win streak. Every weightclass is different and u cant hold every weight class to the 155lb standard of needeing a 5 or 6 fight win streak.
Who is more deserving of a shot then Koch right now?
Koch’s only loss was to Chad Mendes (was out wrestled for 15 minutes), whose only loss was to the current champ (with 1 second left in the round) and he just beat the guy who won TUF in Jonathan Brookings. Prior to that he made his UFC debut by knocking out a very tough fighter in Raphael Assuncao. Plus the guys from Iowa and would very much like to see him take the belt to Cedar Rapids.
So like Kobe said, who in your opinion deserves a shot over Koch?
@ Devin “if u can’t spot the chump at the table after 15 minutes, then u r the chump.” Matt Damon………. Rounders
@Chris come on bro, you gonna argue with me that there isn’t a top contender fight more than half of the time? Or at least a fight that Dana declares will decide top contender? YOu don’t want me to start listing them right? Including the fight you mentioned where rashad one top contender by beating rampage and only got skipped cuz.he was hurt and bones was murdering everyone in site. But at least he deserved it. Koch has beaten some dude who’s name I’m not gonna manually type into my phone, and a couple other low tier nobodys. It’s so soft that he went this way no matter the reason. And even if they needed it so bad, its still soft. Several fighters I think pretty obviously deserve it more. The ufc can do what they want of course, but they should respect the process a bit more, not just throw whatever fighter available for the sake of a title fight and ratings. kz and porier deserve it more. Hell Siver deserves it more, at least he beat a worthy opponent recently. It’s just kinda a slap in the face of all the contenders and all their hard work when they do this. I know youre not saying you agree with ufcs tactics, but I just wanted to chime in.
@kobe come on man, you’re not even adding any points or the substance to the conversation.
Devin You’re actually making the basis for my point. It’s Dana’s world and he changes his mind on the basis of what works best for his company. For every title shot planned, there’s been multiple changes due to whatever works whether it’s due to injury, business decision, etc. In the case of Jones, Rashad was out only a few more months. The UFC wanted Jones in there and made the move without fully exploring how long Evans was going to out of there. Yushin Okami won multiple contender bouts and as passed up, same for Marquardt, same for Hendo, Mendes, etc. There’s been multiple bouts where only one fighter was promised a title shot, and the other guy ended up with a decisive. Chael wasn’t supposed to get Marquardt’s shot, but successfully lobbied for it. Werdum was promised a shot, got passed up, then lost to a fighter making his debut and was not re-signed. Decisions on championship shots change all the time based on multiple factors.
I am not arguing that Koch is the number one pick to face Aldo, but with them moving the bout to 147 after planning for 149, options become limited. Jung and Poirier have a contractual agreement to face each other, so you would have to appease both parties to break that deal. Siver just came off a brutal bout and would likely be unavailable to go. Koch and Poirier were supposed to faceoff in Feb, and that was to decide the number 1 contender. So in a way, the UFC had decided that either he or Poirier were next anyways, and with Poirier tied up. This was the best available pick.
I was not knocking the UFC system. Sure, as someone who covers the sport I would prefer a more set way of doing things but that is simply an unsustainable set up with the way things change in the UFC due to a multitude of possibilities.
Haha thanks for admitting you have no bias by way of being from Iowa will ;) I have no beef with koch, hell for all I know he’ll be the greatest fighter ever. My problem is the process, which is openly garbage.
True, I was born and raised in Iowa so pull for hometown fighters more. Although I have lived in Oregon for 12 years now and would still never root for Chael Sonnen.
I agree it’s a broken system and would like to see something set up, but not likely to happen any time soon.
Things change because ufc decided to make extra money at the expense of integrity and fairness to other fighters. It’s pretty lame and it should be knocked imo. It’s worse than even the BCS with how whimsical they make it sometimes. All “uncontrollable” faults can be followed back to managements bad control. At least with Jones we all knew he was killing everyone including a bunch of good fighters. And typically there is a no 1 contender fight, or a consensus that we can agree on, however in this case it was completely a crap shoot in who they picked. But at the end of the day its all about the fans (allegedly) so if no one wants to make a big deal about it then hey, I guess it is what it is.
That’s the point Chris, it isn’t supposed to be a “business decision”. It’s supposed to be a sport, where the top 2 face off. Occasionally there are 2 or 3 guys who everyone agrees deserves it, and the match was already scheduled. But in this case he just had to have a fight, for the sake of ufc’s wallet, and at the expense of the integrity of the sport. I hope koch beats him fluke styles and the ufc loses money on the long run on the marketability of Aldo.
I didn’t think it was knocked at all in your story, and you even made excuses for why porier and kz couldn’t make the fight. But contracts change all the time (see ufc 146 card) and there is actually.two months so there is plenty of time for either one of them to be ready for this fight. Obviously you can report however you want, and I wasn’t trying to.attack you (hell you have giorgio as your avatar we are home boys! ;)), but don’t down play my point either is all I’m saying. There are 2 things, reporting the news, and.reporting opinions related to it. And those 2 shouldn’t be mixed together imo. At least not for legit unbiased news reporting. When someone trusted with giving the news starts mixing opinion with fact, it can sway the thoughts of the people reading it. No one here apparently cares, and koch is decent, so it gets a pass. But just cuz.I love ufc, and am vehemently addicted.to mma, I can’t just bow to them when they do bs stuff like this..
Again thats where u r wrong u have to realize that it is a business just like everything else in the world is. It is a sport based in capitalistic society and the fact of the matter is how could u say that jung deserves it more than koch . Koch is on a four fight win streak with 3 finishes and jung is on a two fight win streak after getting knocked out by Roop and poirier and him are already scheduled to fight each other and poirier is on like a five fight streak . So its not like there is a definitive person who is the standout 1 contender. If u don’t like the matchup don’t freaking watch it then and to everybody who thinks the UFCs system is shotty is completely ignorant(or show us your better plan) and better yet would prob do the same exact thing if they were in the position of dana white.
Koch has the best striking in that division not named Aldo. He has all the tools in his tool box to beat Aldo. They will be evenly matched on the feet, ground. It will likely come down to have better take down defense.
I have wanted this fight for a year now. Duke has been pushing hard for this fight. You guys obviously cant see what I see every day. But Koch is a beast and often gets the better of Pettis during drills and training. Those two push each other like crazy.
Keep in mind that Koch is a leftie which presents alot of problems to even great strikers.
Yeah Koch didnt look great against Brookins, but it is hard to look great when all Brookins is looking to do is lay and pray.
Johnny thanks for quoting Matt Damon, and a movie. Lol although it was pretty funny. It’s a business, yes, but so is the nfl and so is tennis, but at least they don’t just throw a dart to pick their finalists. Even cfb has their lame bcs which beats this any day. What the organization does is supposed to be built around integrity and this is purely whimsical money making antics. Just because most people lay on the sword and accept bs, doesn’t mean its right, or that I’m wrong for disagreeing. You, as well as the koch fans would be the true chumps at the tables if you really think this makes sense. But hey 99% of the world are sheeps and are asleep, so I’d expect the overall group to get it wrong.
Koch has 5 wins in a row against nobodys. There are 100 people on 5 fight win streaks. Maybe kz is closer to koch in terms of deserving it but at least he just ko’d a top contender in 7 seconds. Koch is coming off missing a non-contender fight due to injury, And gets instant title shot? Lol. Porier obviously deserves it best, then possibly Siver (if were really gonna grasp at straws here), and on top of that the ufc did not need to have a title fight for the sake of having a title fight. It’s actually disrespectful to the fighters that show up every fight, and climb the latter like good boys, like the ufc tells them to do.
Regardless, like I said, I like koch and I hope he wins, but It’s the bs way the ufc went about it that I’m calling out. If you really wanna knock that and be an excuse maker for the ufc, that’s your bad.
you can’t compare this to other sports man thats where ur getting mixed up cuz in both tennis and the NFL they use a tournament draw single elimination style and throughout the seasons and tournaments everybody pretty much has to play everybody else at some point. And even the top seeded teams or players have to prove themselves all over again each season or tournament.
i feel like ur getting angry cuz in other sports u always have a set path to the championship
but it would suck if the ufc were like that
Koch has won 5 of his last 6 with his only loss a decision to chad mendes and his last win was over a guy who dropped from 155 is a great grappler has 18 pro fights and has fought Jose Aldo in the past and Poirier last fought a guy who had his first big fight ever and had 4 pro mma fights at the time.
IMO u can’t really say that poirier is the obvious number one contender.
That’s true, and really there isn’t a true top contender, unless Edgar agreed to drop down. Kz/porier was the only fight that was close to top contender, and I wouldn’t have argued it. Typically I think the ufc does the best they can, And I’m not really angry, just pointing out that this was a money making decision all the way, and was unfair for the other fighters when they do this. But hey, I hope koch wins and crushes the future cash they stood to make with aldo being the potential top p4p fighter in the world. Cheers.