Looks like I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like the Josh Koscheck vs. Neil Magny matchup. Two weeks ago, there was a rumor that Koscheck and Magny would be squaring off in a welterweight bout at UFC 184, which takes place February 28 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. At the time, I was very confused by this matchup, for two reasons. The first reason I didn’t understand the UFC booking Koscheck against Magny is that Koscheck hasn’t fought in over a year, while in that same time period Magny has fought a UFC-best five times. It just seemed weird to me to match up the most active welterweight in the division against a guy who seemed like he was on the verge of retirement, as that’s not something you see every day. And the second reason I didn’t understand the booking was because Magny is on a five-fight win streak while Koscheck is on a three-fight losing streak. I honestly don’t recall an instance in UFC history where that happened before, and while traditions are meant to be broken, this just didn’t make sense to me. To be clear, I’m not necessarily against a winner vs. loser matchup, but it’s pretty uncommon as it is, so to make a matchup against a five-fights-in-a-row winner and a three-fights-in-a-row loser was extremely perplexing to me. I know I wasn’t the only one who was confused by this matchup, and I guess the indifference towards the fight from fans on social media led the UFC to scrapping Koscheck vs. Mangy and instead booking Kosheck against Jake Ellenberger, a fight that makes a lot more sense to me. It’s a fight between two wrestling-based fighters with knockout power who are both riding three-fight losing streaks, and to me it’s a perfect fight to determine who stays in the UFC and who has to either retire, or head over to the World Series of Fighting or Bellator. And make no mistake about it: The loser of this fight won’t be in the UFC anymore. If Koscheck loses his fourth in a row, especially if it’s by knockout, I fully expect him to hang up his gloves for good. And if he refuses, the UFC would be well within their rights to refuse to offer him more fights. As for Ellenberger, while he was once a promising welterweight contender, he has now lost three-straight fights and if he can’t beat Koscheck, a semi-retired fighter who is getting up there in age, at that point the UFC would have to cut him. As far as a betting line goes, it’s a close fight but I do slightly lean towards Ellenberger based on the style matchup. Having said that, Ellenberger is someone who you can’t trust with your money at this point, so I won’t be betting him unless he’s a big underdog for whatever reason, but I do think he should win this fight. But we’ll see what happens next February — all I know is that this is a better fight than Koscheck vs. Magny, that’s for sure.
