Josh Koscheck vs. Thiago Alves
Josh Koscheck, much like Drew McFedries, stepped up on short notice as a replacement for the injured Diego Sanchez. He is set to meet Thiago “Pitbull” Alves, a well rounded fighter who is riding the momentum of a shocking TKO victories over top contender Karo “The Heat” Parisyan and former champion Matt Hughes.
Alves, who has catapulted himself to the top tier of contenders at Welterweight with his recent shocking upsets, is an extremely potent Muay Thai striker with a lot of knockout power in his punches and deadly knee strikes. His gameplan will definitely be to make Koscheck pay for his takedown attempts with hard shots from distance, and to sprawl his way into the clinch where he can dole out punishment with his nightmare-inducing knee strikes.
Whether he will be able to implement this gameplan is up in the air, as his opponent is an extremely dangerous and well-rounded fighter with near-unstoppable takedowns and an uncanny ability to maintain dominant position. Years ago, during his stint on the original season of The Ultimate Fighter, calling Josh Koscheck well-rounded would have brought a chorus of riotous laughter from anyone familiar with the sport. Remembered by many as Josh “The Blanket” Koscheck for his underwhelming lay and pray offense, Koscheck has improved leaps and bounds in the ensuing years and can now be safely considered a competent striker. Clearly, he is still not on the same level as someone like Alves, but long gone are the days when Koscheck was completely helpless on his feet, thanks to his training at American Kickboxing Academy.
His development as a fighter will prove to be his saving grace, as his striking should be just good enough to keep Alves at bay long enough for him to secure the inevitable takedown. From there, Alves is the fish out of water, and Koscheck should be able to hold him down and keep him in trouble with ground and pound.
Rinse and repeat 2 more times, and you have a lopsided unanimous decision victory for Koscheck.
