Tomorrow night will it be rumble time for Josh Koscheck?

View full size photo »

UFC 106 is live on PPV tomorrow night and coming just one week off a free SpikeTV event featuring Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera which did not exactly thrill or attract a large audience, and WEC from Wednesday night which featured Jose Aldo's destruction of World Featherweight Champion Mike Brown. Needless to say, this has been a busy week to be a fan of combat sports, as we also had Pacquiao vs. Cotto on Saturday night (which undoubtedly hurt UFC's numbers for a tape delayed UK event). 

UFC 106 is not the strongest card UFC has presented, but honestly it looks like it will be the best that we get for quite a while with a good portion of UFC's top tier talent tied up with other obligations or injuries. But there will be at least one bout that features a great stand up battle.

Anthony "Rumble" Johnson vs Josh Koscheck. Both men have fought recently and both are coming off knocking their last opponents out in spectacular fashion. Josh Koscheck is a fighter who was never known for his stand up until recently. After his tough loss to GSP, it seemed like he refashioned himself as a knockout artist, as he scored a sick head kick victory over Dustin Hazelett. Koscheck has been compared a lot to his new friend Chuck Liddell since then as he has become more of a sprawl and brawler than a pure wrestler when he first broke into MMA. His knockout of Yoshiyuki Yoshida and stoppage of Frank Trigg reaffirmed that he is on the right path stylistically, but the Paulo Thiago fight showed that he still has a lot to learn when it comes to not becoming cocky and sloppy standing up.

Anthony Johnson has been on a tear since joining the UFC. Officially he has two losses, but one came from a "TKO" after being poked in the eye by Kevin Burns. If anything it was a very, very poor stoppage and poor officiating. His one honest loss was a rear naked choke loss to Rich Clementi. That leaves us with five, yes five knockouts, only one of which being a TKO. Johnson is a Sanshou fighter, which has been made notable over the past few years by Strikeforce fighter Cung Le's emergence. If you don't know Sanshou, it is considered an integral part of Gung Fu (Chinese boxing, often mislabeled as Kung Fu). To practice Sanshou on its ow usually implies using less of the traditional stances and forms and being able to apply the art to a practical fight. This makes it perfect for MMA, and as Johnson has shown, Sanshou is very dangerous. 

When Johnson and Koscheck face off do not expect a technical ground battle, neither man is going to look to take this to the ground. If Koscheck were smart, he would look to take Johnson down and keep him down, but Johnson has a wrestling background (nowhere near Koscheck's pedigree) and has shown to have competent takedown defense. Johnson will most likely look to keep the distance with his kicks, as he has demonstrated in the past a sound use of leg and mid kicks to keep opponents guessing. Koscheck has thrown kicks in the past, but relies on his hands. Johnson, though, has a 5 inch reach advantage over Koscheck, so getting in tight will be very difficult for Koscheck. Johnson is not known as a clinch fighter, so I don't see him wanting to close the distance unless he absolutely has to. Koscheck has to be patient and wait for Johnson to throw a kick and quickly counter, closing the distance and letting him unload those heavy hands.