The UFC is targeting a welterweight rematch between Josh Koscheck and Paulo Thiago at UFC 109 on Feb. 6. FanHouse learned of the potential fight on Tuesday, but the bout has yet to be made official by the organization.
Thiago defeated Koscheck in a stunning upset at UFC 95 last February via first round TKO in the Brazilian's Octagon debut. Since then, Thiago has gone 1-1 in the UFC, losing to Koscheck's teammate, Jon Fitch, at UFC 100 and beating Jacob Volkmann UFC 106 in November.
Meanwhile, Koscheck was also victorious at UFC 106 against Anthony Johnson. The American Kickboxing Academy product also picked up a win over Frank Trigg at UFC 103 since the loss to Thiago.
Following Koscheck's victory over Johnson, he told Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview that he deserved a title shot against 170-pound champion Georges St-Pierre next, not current No. 1 contender, Dan Hardy.
"I'm the No. 1 freaking contender in this weight division, right here," he said.
The UFC 109 event has yet to be made official by the organization, but it is expected to take place Super Bowl weekend at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Other fights rumored to be on the card include Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman and Frank Trigg vs. Matt Serra.
I love it! Kos was tooling him up until that uppercut. I think it will be a war though this time as Thiago looks very very tough for anybody. But I think Kos will take him out in the 2nd with punches.
Not really interested in this rematch. Fail to see what it does for either of them other than massage Kos's already over swollen ego if he wins this time. Pulling for Thiago in this one, picked Kos last time, probably pick him again this time.
yeah but why?? why now?? if u wanna go deep in the barrel for kos at least give him baroni i'll watch it, but who would have known that lil engine that could paulo thiago would be on 4 main cards straight
This fight makes no sense for either guys career or for the UFC title picture. Its way to soon for a rematch and all this does is build up Kos's ego (as someone above me stated).
I will probably pick Koscheck tough I'll be rooting for Thiago. Then again I have never rooted for Koscheck in any fight.
I don't really see the point of this match either... I think I'll be picking Kos obviously, and he'll probably use his wrestling this time around but what I'm REALLY hoping for is that Kos eats another UPPERCUT/LEFT HOOK... that might make me fall out of my couch in laughter
_______________________________________ HW: Minotauro, Engineer, Cigano LHW: Dragon, Griffin, Rampage, Ace MW: Maia, Spider, Nate WW: Rush, Jon Fitch, Hitman LW: KenFlo, J Lau, The Bully, The Answer, T. Griffin, Jim Miller
This fight makes perfect sense for Koscheck because if/when he wins it negates the loss to Paulo in terms of title contention and makes even more sense for Paulo because if he wins again it proves he deserves notice as a contender as well. Paulo got extremely lucky in his debut showing poor standup up until the stoppage, hate calling it a fluke but dont expect him to catch Koscheck again or being able to stop the takedowns. Paulo is very good on the ground though and he could catch him there, however I see this going the way Joe Silva probably predicted it to go the first time with a Koscheck UD or a gnp/standing KO.
yeah but why?? why now?? if u wanna go deep in the barrel for kos at least give him baroni i'll watch it, but who would have known that lil engine that could paulo thiago would be on 4 main cards straight
Paulo Thiago is 2-1 in the UFC and in his sole loss he lost to one of the best, if not the best, welterweight not named Georges St. Pierre in a competitive contest. That's hardly in the barrel. I think the match makes good sense. It'd be nice for Koscheck to avenge this loss on the way to a title fight, and if Thiago wins it would put him right around contendership as well, since Koscheck is coming off a fairly high-profile victory over Anthony Johnson.
