Teleconference call with TUF 12 Coaches-George St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck

The teleconference call for The Ultimate Fighter with GSP and Josh Koscheck was pretty revealing to me, for one Kos is not near as much of an asshole as most would like to think. During the conference call it was clear that Kos does what he does to sell tickets, he is a “love me or hate me, just don’t forget me, type of fighter” as GSP would put it. George said that in the house Kos acted exactly the way he thought he would and to him there were no surprises and that is just the way he is.

Koscheck was blunt in explaining that “GSP has had his time, all great champions have their time to be on top, but they all have their time to lose too, this is the end of George’s reign and time for me to be the champ.” He is too conservative (GSP), he only wants to wrestle, I will be ready for the fight where ever it goes”.

Kos went on to say that George was wasting his time and money training his boxing with Freddie Roach, because he will never stand with him.

Then GSP was asked what it was like being in the house with Kos, GSP said there were some confrontations but he was not shocked by it, he also said that Kos wasn’t really a bad guy but that he just plays a villain to the crowd.

Kos responded by saying “Thanks for sticking up for me George, I’ll send you a text later and we’ll cuddle.” Obviously sarcastic, Kos was still trying to get under George’s skin during the entire call, but GSP would not respond to the taunting of Koscheck.

Instead George responded by calling Kos a liar and he repeated that sentiment a few times, like when Kos was asked if he was happy the fight was in Montreal because Kos responded to that question a little different than what was expected. Kos said “good they love me in Montreal”. After claiming this he was asked if he had any hard feelings towards the Montreal crowd after the last event where he was booed and had garbage thrown at him during the event. He responded by saying, “I have no hard feelings to Montreal, but I will be leaving as Champ, it’s going to be a fun night.”

Kos was then asked if he won the belt what would the situation be if Dana asked him to fight his teammate, Jon Fitch? Kos wouldn’t even entertain the question and responded by saying, “we’re done with that question, next.”

Kos went on to say that George was wasting his time and money training his boxing with Freddie Roach, because he will never stand with him. Kos also claimed that GSP was too conservative since being Koed by “little Matt Serra” that he was scared to stand with him and that he will “put George on his ass and win that belt”. GSP responded by saying “Kos will won’t stand with me either” and he continued to say that he is “not good at trash talking, I was raised in the discipline of Karate and we were taught to respect our surroundings and our opponent.” To confirm that this was true GSP kept calling Kos a “liar”, but had little else bad to say about him.

When Kos was asked if he had a strong opinion of George he said” I know what to expect, I am the villain and he is the squeaky clean superman type, he’s fake and he is different than what he shows”.

When both fighters were asked what they thought of the recent statements being made about wrestlers being boring, both fighters had something to say about that.

Kos responded more generally as in the sport in general, he said -that this is Mixed Martial Arts and that if people wanted to see boxing or kickboxing only, there are sports where you can see that, boxing and kickboxing and he said the ground game is a very important part of it, “get better at wrestling”.

GSP took it more personally and said-“my last fights were boring, but I used to have exciting fights, if I were to get that armbar in the first or that kimura in the 3rd people wouldn’t say that”

When asked about The Ultimate Fighter show and how they will be perceived, being on the show before both Kos and GSP said it really depends on how the editors want us to look. Both Kos and GSP said there were some really great fighters this season and that the fights will be great and you will be able to see some of these guys around for a long time.

When asked about training the new fighters, Kos said that there isn’t a whole lot of training you can do with them in 6 weeks, he focused more on game plans and strategic match-ups, because that would be the most important thing going into the fights on such short notice.

GSP had a different approach, he said he brought in lots of guys because each fighter is different and will respond differently to each coach with more coaches he can better help a group of people who are all different.

It is clear that these two are the two best in the welterweight division and to me they are the perfect match-up, very similar skills but with a different approach to using them, good and evil, Superman and Lex Luther, Batman and the Joker, now KOS and GSP?

Ok maybe not, but with a full season of The Ultimate Fighter, it may seem like it by the end!!

I know they’ve peaked my interest!

Show starts tonight right after the UFC Fight Night tonight on Spike TV