The Turning Point: Koscheck vs. Pierce

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Josh Koscheck was one round down in a fight he did not really want.

In the first five minutes of his UFC 143 encounter with Mike Pierce on Saturday, the longtime welterweight contender had been outworked, out-clinched and marginally out-struck. Pierce spent the first half of the round pressing Koscheck into the fence and boxing dirty; when they broke, Pierce went to jabs and hooks, sticking and moving away from Koscheck’s powerful right hand.

Perhaps Koscheck’s bumpy start had something to do with a strained training camp at his longtime and now-former home of American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif. Maybe it was the result of the perceived caliber of his opponent and the circumstances of the matchup, which was made when Koscheck’s original opponent, Carlos Condit, was called upon for main event duty.

“To be honest, I didn’t really have the urge to fight him,” Koscheck said of Pierce in a post-fight interview on UFC.com. “He’s down there on the ladder. It was a lose-lose for me.”

Whatever the reason, Koscheck’s corner did not like what it was seeing.

“You gotta be in and out. You gotta keep that head movement,” trainer Bob Cook told him between rounds one and two. “Less time in the pocket, OK? ... Brawling’s no good. You’re faster than he is ... he wants you to stay in the pocket. He wants you coming in. He’s looking for the big counter hook.”

Maybe the biggest surprise of the opening frame was that Koscheck, a onetime NCAA Division I wrestling champion, never tried to take the fight to the ground, instead thwarting three takedowns from fellow wrestler Pierce. That changed by the end of round two.

Pierce tagged Koscheck with a right cross early in the middle period and went back to clinching, but, this time, Koscheck would not be held. The 170-pounders resumed “brawling,” which in this instance meant Koscheck loading up for power punches while Pierce pumped his jab and bounced around outside, bloodying his opponent’s nose. Pierce, too, was sliced open along his hairline by what was later revealed to be an accidental clash of heads; however, in real time, there is no telling what the judges saw.

With 90 seconds to go, Koscheck’s constant open-handed probing and measuring earned him a verbal warning from referee Herb Dean. Nonetheless, Koscheck went straight back to sticking his left hand in Pierce’s face and throwing ill-intentioned rights behind it. Seconds later, when Koscheck got Pierce near the fence, he shot a powerful double-leg and pulled Pierce to the canvas. Koscheck did not do much of anything with the position, but the difference was apparent. Compared to Pierce’s labored single-leg tries, Koscheck’s takedown looked almost effortless.

Now, the mea culpa: I gave round two to Josh Koscheck on the Sherdog.com virtual scorecard, and, in retrospect, I do not feel good about it. The round was slow and fairly close, but, upon review, it was Pierce who dictated the pace and landed cleaner shots throughout. The data backs Pierce, too: according to FightMetric.com, he out-landed Koscheck 21-12 in the second -- 14-8 in “significant” strikes, mostly jabs -- and threw more total strikes by a margin of 50-31.

Was it the blood on Pierce’s face or the relative power behind Koscheck’s punches?

Maybe those factored in, but the most sensible explanation for Koscheck nabbing the second -- and, subsequently, the split decision -- seems to be the late takedown, that tried and true method of “stealing” frames. I was not alone in my thinking, as Nevada-appointed judges Jeff Collins and Sal D’Amato also gave Koscheck round two. That fact does not exactly instill confidence in my call, considering the current state of judging in MMA and the fact that D’Amato was one of two officials who sided with Edwin Figueroa in an absurd undercard decision.

Koscheck went on to eke out the third round, barely out-striking Pierce (16-12) and scoring another last-minute takedown. Fans at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas jeered the split verdict when it was read, though, in all fairness, it seems the majority of MMA fans will take any opportunity to boo Koscheck. The bleached-blonde “Ultimate Fighter” alum was predictably unrepentant about his method of victory.

“I found a way to win. Not the prettiest thing, but you can’t have knockouts every time,” said Koscheck. “To the crowd out there and everybody who hates me: f--- yourselves. I’m sick of being nice.”