The second fight in our in-depth look at UFC 74 that we will be previewing is the Welterweight contender bout between Georges "Rush" St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck. This is an interesting fight for a number of reasons. This bout will solidify the #1 contender for the title after Matt Hughes fights Matt Serra at UFC 79. It will also pit the #2 ranked welterweight in the world, according to MMAWeekly, against the #4 ranked welterweight in the world. St. Pierre will enter this bout with a 13-2 record, recently being defeated by the hands of Matt Serra at UFC 69 via TKO in the 1st round. St. Pierre rattled off 6 consecutive wins before his defeat, obtaining the UFC Welterweight Title against Matt Hughes at UFC 65. Koscheck comes into the bout with a 9-1 record, scoring 5 straight victories and putting himself in position for a contender matchup after defeating Diego Sanchez at UFC 69. St. Pierre is looking to redeem himself with a win and gain a shot at regaining the title while Koscheck is looking to prove he is one of the top welterweights in the world. Let's breakdown this matchup and take a closer look at what each fighter's skills and styles are.
Skills & Styles Breakdown
Georges St. Pierre is a very versatile fighter in every aspect of MMA. He is knowledgable in various forms of martial arts that include Kyokushin, Boxing, Wrestling, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Pierre has shown that he has some excellent ju-jitsu and wrestling skills that prove to be a tough combination for opponents to handle. He has very good technique in his ju-jitsu that has allowed him to control opponents very well, even when he has taken considerable damage during a fight. GSP's striking is his rock though. He has very good hands and an able defense against another striker. Pierre is also known for his fitness when coming into a fight, his conditioning is one of the best in MMA. This fight will depend mostly on Pierre's striking, but also rely heavily on his takedown defense, grappling, and wrestling game. Recently, it has been questioned whether St. Pierre is going to be mentally strong for this bout. It was seen in some of his earlier fights that Pierre almost wanted to quit the fight. It has been said in the MMA community that due to his mental situation in the Matt Serra bout, he wasn't focused enough and failed to defend the title. He will be once again tested at UFC 74 whether his mental strength is strong for the fight.
Koscheck is a collegiate championship wrestler with some striking ability. He has very little ju-jitsu in his background and usually finishes opponents by submission with chokes due to his body control with his wrestling ability. He is a fighter that is able to go the distance and has good conditioning skills. Koscheck's lack of diversity in techniques, especially having very little ju-jitsu background, will be very difficult for him to overcome in this bout. He has used his wrestling to control an opponent and score on the ground, but without knockout power while on top of an opponent. This resulted in a number of decisions.
Video Analysis
Let's take a front row seat to the last 5 fights of each fighter and analyze their strengths and weaknesses coming into this bout at UFC 74:
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St.Pierre's Last 5 fights:
vs. Matt Serra Loss via TKO 1st Round
vs. Matt Hughes Win via TKO 2nd Round
vs. BJ Penn Win via Split Decision
vs. Sean Sherk Win via TKO 2nd Round
vs. Frank Trigg Win via submission 1st Round
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Koscheck's Last 5 fights:
vs. Diego Sanchez Win via Unanimous Decision
vs. Jeff Joslin Win via Unanimous Decision
vs. Jonathan Goulet Win via Submission (Strikes) 1st Round
vs. Dave Menne Win via Unanimous Decision
vs. Ansar Chalangov Win via Submission 1st Round
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A few of these videos are still watchable, but require downloads. You can find the Sherk vs. Pierre and Penn vs. Pierre via Google Video Search as a torrent download or I believe Penn's video is archived on a Japanese video site, takes awhile to download. You can also pick up all the fights on UFC On Demand for a small fee.
Breakdown of Georges St. Pierre's Last 5 fights
St. Pierre vs. Frank Trigg
Georges St. Pierre's string of recent bouts have been against top fighters in the welterweight division. At the time, Frank Trigg and St. Pierre were both contending for a possibly title shot when they fought each other. This fight was supposed to be a lot closer than it was, but Pierre was absolutely dominant. He not only out struck Trigg in the stand up, but his ju-jitsu and wrestling was phenomenol against Trigg. Trigg was unable to control Pierre on the ground, and when he tried to escape and get the fight back into a standup position, Pierre was able to get his back. This allowed Pierre to hang on, and eventually sink in a rear naked choke. Pierre used a combination of pounding Trigg while on his back and in side mount as well as his phenomenol ju-jitsu skills to maintain body control. Trigg's wrestling was completely neutralized in this matchup, and showed that Pierre was a real force to be reckoned with in his ground game.
St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes
In this UFC 65 matchup between the welterweight champion Matt Hughes and the contender Georges St. Pierre, we saw the entire repetoire of skills that St. Pierre had learned in his MMA career. Pierre exhibited an inpenetratable range that Hughes could not shoot into in order to take down his opponent. Pierre showed great striking ability and used his kicks to keep Hughes at a distance for most of the first round. Pierre landed a lot of good punching combos and landed a good amount of shots to Hughes. In the second round, Pierre was quicker, faster, and had more pop in his step. He was able to land a great leg sweep and a head kick to Hughes's face that crumpled him. The shear speed, movement, and range Pierre showed in this bout was too much for Hughes. Hughes grew tired of chasing Pierre around the ring, and having a hard time taking Pierre down. This was one of the more prominent performances by St. Pierre we've seen to date. Absolute domination of legend Matt Hughes.
St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra
Pierre was very hesitant in this fight. He used his range well, but wasn't landing massive blows or using his kicking ability well against Serra. Serra is known as being a very good ju-jitsu fighter with very little striking power or ability. Pierre made a mistake by leaning into Serra's range and getting caught with a huge punch. The only real mistake of the fight. He didn't utilize his own range and use his kicks like he had in the past against so many opponents.
St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn
A fight that shows St. Pierre's conditioning and takedown power, BJ Penn was ultimately winning this fight after the first round. He landed many huge blows to Pierre's face and Pierre was definitely visibly damaged badly by Penn's onslaught. Pierre hung in and was able to takedown and defend against Penn throughout the second round. He was able to ground and pound Penn a few times while in Penn's guard and take the round. Penn eventually gassed and became unbelievably exhausted, a trait that has been assigned to BJ Penn his entire career. Pierre's wrestling saved him in this fight. He was able to shoot a tired BJ Penn and take him down at will. This tied up BJ from scoring any punches or submission attempts and allowed Pierre to win the fight on pure attrition.
Final Analysis
When Georges St. Pierre is on his game, he's nearly an unstoppable force in the MMA world. His combination of striking, wrestling, ju-jitsu, defense, and range is haunting to opponents. His fight against Frank Trigg proved his ju-jitsu game was legitimate and useful in the ring. He has shown in previous fights that his ju-jitsu is also a great way to tie opponents up on the ground. In the first matchup with Matt Hughes, Pierre attempted various submission holds while on his back in order to tie up Hughes from ground and pounding him. Combined with Pierre's wrestling, his ground game is phenomenol. He has trained with the Canadian Olympic wrestling squad, as heard on his All Access special, and it has shown.
Ju-jitsu and wrestling are a part of his game, but his ultimate skill in the ring is his outstanding striking skills. His range alone stifles opponents. By having that large range between himself and his opponent, he is able to set up kicks and strikes without danger of being counterpunched. He showed in his Hughes bout that he can literally strike at will against the best. He landed some huge blows to Hughes, along with a Superman punch at the end of round 1 that nearly ended the fight. This overall combination of great ground and devastating striking makes St. Pierre one of the most complete welterweights in the world.
Breakdown of Josh Koscheck's Last 5 fights
Since we are limited to the amount of fights that are available to us on the Internet, I'll rely on the two fights I was able to get, along with some comments on the fights I've seen Josh in the past five listed above.
Koscheck vs. Goulet
Defined as a wrestler by trade, Koscheck showed it off in this bout with
Jonathan Goulet. Koscheck's standup was much better than Goulet's standup during the first round. Goulet stood flat-footed while Koscheck was moving on his feet and ducking in and out while throwing big rights. He was able to land a couple of key shots at Goulet and then catch him off guard with a shoot to Goulet's midsection, taking him down with ease. Once on the ground, Koscheck dominated him. He was able to mount him easily without much defensive work by Goulet and ground and pound him out to a win. He showed some impressive body control on the ground against Goulet, as well as some decent striking skills along with his quick movement standing.
Koscheck vs. Sanchez
A real test for Koscheck,
Diego Sanchez came into the fight with an unblemished 17-0 record. This fight is considered by many fans to be one of the more boring fights on the UFC 69 card. It was a struggling three rounds of standup sparring with a few takedowns in the fight. Koscheck threw huge haymaker rights that seemed to land every once in awhile. Sanchez was horribly cautious throughout the fight, which allowed Koscheck to land punches and score points at will at times. Koscheck's main advantage in the fight was that he was quick on his feet, and continuously threw punches as he tried to set up a takedown. He continued the same strategy for three rounds and was able to unanimously win the bout. Both fighters were cautious, but Koscheck was aggressive in his striking throughout the fight. His only real style deduction would be that he wasn't keeping his hands up in his standup, but luckily Diego was slow and very slow in countering Koscheck's punches.
Final Analysis
Koscheck has excellent wrestling skills. He is able to shoot opponents and take them down with power and keep them controlled. Mounting opponents and choking or pounding them out is Koscheck's sole priority on the ground and he did that effectively against Goulet. His striking ability is unbelievably overpowering though. He has a tendency to throw wild haymakers that his last few opponents have not made him pay for. His quickness definitely allows him to throw huge rights and escape the counterpunch. He doesn't have a large range, but gives himself some extra range with his foot speed. Overall, great takedown game and ground game, and above average striking ability.
MMA-Analyst.com Final Predictions
Can Koscheck, the underdog in this fight, overcome the vast set of MMA skills that St. Pierre possesses in this fight? St. Pierre showed a weak chin in his last fight, but it possibly may have been a mental mistake on his part. He showed too much of his chin when leaning in for a takedown or strike to Serra, and was rocked by a huge punch from Serra. Was it a mistake? Was that the fight that everyone should just chalk off as "one of those fights a guy got lucky on"? I think so. Pierre is going to be coming out to prove it was a fluke and get a title shot again. Pierre is one of the most dynamic fighters in the MMA world. He has the most vast skillset among welterweights, if not the entire UFC. He combines his unbelievable range, striking, wrestling, and ju-jitsu to beat his opponent in the standup and ground aspect of a fight.
Koscheck, on the other hand, is coming off a fight won by decision in a cautious standup battle between two very good ground fighters. Koscheck showed quickness and the ability to avoid Sanchez's counterattacks. He also showed some great takedowns, but was countered by Sanchez's ju-jitsu. I believe St. Pierre's overall skillset is going to overwhelm Koscheck. Pierre's striking is overwhelming and has been overwhelming to almost every opponent he faces. Not only is Pierre's range a huge advantage, but the kicks that come off of that range advantage will be a huge factor in this matchup. If Pierre can work the kicking game in, he will be able to work on shooting Koscheck's legs and taking him down. Koscheck will most likely be looking for the same advantage as well though. I think that Koscheck's only chance is to utilize his wrestling skills and catching Pierre during a kick or haymaker and taking him down for a pounding. Even on the ground though, Koscheck will have to be aware of Pierre's ju-jitsu and submission attempts. Koscheck will spend too much time defending on the ground rather than being on the offensive, and even if he does get Pierre down, I believe Pierre will be able to get back up or tie up Koscheck to minimize damage. Pierre is just too much for Koscheck in this matchup.
Final Prediction
Pierre via 2nd round TKO/KO