Before a Hardy Title Shot, What About Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson?

Not to take anything away from British sensation Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy, but despite an extremely impressive victory over top contender Mike Swick at UFC 105, it seems a bit too early to push the Englishman into a title bout with champion Georges St. Pierre.

Hardy’s remarkable win over Swick certainly proved that “The Outlaw” deserves to be mentioned among the top five fighters in the division, but there are surely a couple other worthy contenders that could be considered in line for a title shot ahead of Hardy.

Explosive welterweights Anthony “Rumble” Johnson and Josh Koscheck are set to collide this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada at UFC 106. Believe it or not, the winner of that bout could be equally, if not more deserving than Hardy as far as a shot against St. Pierre is concerned.

Making the case for Josh Koscheck

Once known as primarily a strong wrestler and nothing more, Koscheck has improved leaps and bounds since appearing on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter. The AKA product has developed brutal striking prowess and has become well rounded in all facets of the game.

His record in the UFC’s Octagon is an extraordinary 11-4 with notable victories over Drew Fickett, Diego Sanchez, Dustin Hazelett, Chris Lytle, and most recently Frank Trigg.

Before meeting a then-unbeaten UFC newcomer Paulo Thiago at UFC 95, many considered Koscheck to be one victory away from a title shot. Koscheck was dominating the fight with his striking before a careless mistake put him on the canvas courtesy of a right uppercut-left hook combo from Thiago.

Many argue that the fight was stopped way too early, but regardless Koscheck’s title hopes came to an abrupt halt. A crushing knockout over seasoned veteran Trigg has put Koscheck right back on track and a decisive victory over Johnson this weekend could definitely deem the All-American wrestler worthy of a title shot.

Some will debate that Koscheck has already lost dominantly to current champion St. Pierre, and a rematch is not entirely intriguing. While Koscheck has been defeated by St. Pierre once before, a rematch would be much more exciting than most would originally think. A lot has changed in two years and both fighters have evolved since that initial meeting.

On top of that, a Koscheck vs. St. Pierre II headliner is much more marketable than having St. Pierre vs. Hardy as a main event, unless of course the bout took place in England or Canada. Once again not to discredit Hardy, “The Outlaw” is most definitely a legit contender but there are better options and Koscheck is one of them if victorious at UFC 106.

Making the case for Anthony “Rumble” Johnson

“Rumble” Johnson has been competing in the UFC since 2007 and has garnered an impressive 5-2 record with a majority of those victories coming by way of an explosive knockout. Out of every fighter in the UFC’s 170-pound division, Johnson is the only one that matches St. Pierre in pure athletic ability and explosiveness.

The 25 year old just recently went from prospect to contender with his “knockout of the night” victory over Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFC 104. Johnson knocked out the Judo black belt in just less than one minute of the very first round on his PPV main card debut.

If “Rumble” were to run through Koscheck with another brutal knockout, Johnson could make another transition from up and coming contender to top-five ranked welterweight. As previously mentioned, Koscheck has been a top ranked welterweight for years, so a dominant victory over a fighter of his caliber would put Johnson right into title contention.

As far as name value is concerned, Johnson isn’t that much of a bigger name than Hardy is, but a bout with St. Pierre would be much more interesting stylistically than St. Pierre vs. Hardy would prove to be. As talented as Hardy is, very few view the Englishman as a legit threat to St. Pierre’s title as they would a ruthless knockout artist such as Johnson.

Sure it may be way too soon to push “Rumble” into the title picture, but then again, it could also be too early to feed Hardy to St. Pierre as well.

The only reason Hardy would be considered for a title shot before Johnson is because Hardy has yet to lose in the UFC where as “Rumble” has two losses (to Kevin Burns and Rich Clementi)—although the Burns defeat was caused from an accidental eye poke and Johnson avenged the loss by knocking Burns out with a head kick in the rematch.

Other than that though, they are equally worthy of a title shot. Hardy has only had four UFC fights and has defeated Akhiro Gono, Rory Markham, Marcus Davis, and Mike Swick. While all of those victories are impressive, the only top ranked opponent was Swick.

Johnson has yet to defeat a top-10 welterweight as well, but all of that could change if he were to defeat Koscheck. Hardy went the distance with Swick but if Johnson is able to finish Koscheck then “Rumble” could definitely make the claim to a title shot ahead of his English colleague.