BJ Penn vs. Koscheck-Daley Winner a Possibility for TUF 12

There's a new rumor floating around that contrary to current speculation, the winner of the fight between Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley may not get an immediate title shot, but instead will likely be brought in to coach on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite BJ Penn.

If Koscheck or Daley were successful in that fight, they would then get a title shot. It's unclear if Penn would need another win to garner his own title shot if Georges St. Pierre is still champion at the time.

If this rumor is true, there are a lot of positives.

Penn seems destined to make another foray into the welterweight division, and coaching on TUF would provide him with the time necessary to add some bulk so that he could be more competitive with the division's elite.

On the other side, a win over Penn would provide some much needed momentum for the Koscheck-Daley winner.

Daley has looked impressive of late, but it appears that the UFC may be wary of placing Georges St. Pierre against another fighter without good wrestling and ground skill because of what happened in St. Pierre's last bout.

A fight against Penn would do much to alleviate those concerns, as a win over Koscheck would probably only mean that Koscheck decided to strike with Daley and got knocked out because he looked down when he was throwing a jab again.

Koscheck also needs some additional momentum, because although he might be able to out-wrestle Daley, he's not going to be able to do the same thing to St. Pierre, who already beat him and is generally considered to be better in all areas of mixed martial arts.

Looking past the matchmaking reasons, this rumor actually makes sense for the sake of television viewing, because many people dread the idea of watching an entire season of St. Pierre's canned answers, and would far prefer the more colorful antics of Penn.

The only apparent downside of this rumor is that it seems to leave St. Pierre without an opponent.

According to my sources, that's not really too much of a concern. Among possible contenders are the winner of the June fight between Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves, Paulo Thiago if he gets by Martin Kampmann, Ricardo Almeida, or possibly Jake Shields, especially if he can defeat Dan Henderson.

Actually, those options work better for the UFC because it would allow St. Pierre to get back into action earlier than if he did the TUF show, which would leave him chomping at the bit until December.

St. Pierre is eager to put on a more impressive performance in his next outing, and fights opposite Shields or Almeida would give St. Pierre a chance to show off his striking that has been seen only infrequently over the past few years.

All of this will be contingent upon BJ Penn winning over Frank Edgar, but the UFC has presumably already assumed the result of that fight, and who can blame them given the way Penn has looked recently.