What's up with Koscheck?

[Ou Ji]

Just watched the fight last night on Spike TV and and have to wonder how someone can be so good and so bad at the same time?

I know, it's easy to sit on the couch and pick apart a fight but he seemed to be too focused on the full mount and ground and pound. Even though his opponent was real squirrely which made the fight difficult I feel like he really didn't bother trying to get an arm and submit like Lebe did in his fight.

With so much at stake Leben went for whatever win he could get and Koscheck looked like he wouldn't settle for anything less than a KO or blood. He got the KO, too bad it was him instead of his opponent.

Maybe you MMA guys can give an analysis and point out the things I probably missed.

[Becca]

I'm not sure you and I saw the same fight... Kos fought a very good fight. His opponant Had been pounding him with knee strikes the whole time, but was never able to stun Josh. Nore was Josh able to finish him off, though he Josh) was obviosly winning by points. If he hadn't gone in for the shoot and caught that knee right in his face, he'd have won that mach by disision.

In my oppinion, he kept taking it to the ground to avoid the other guy's rather devistating Tai clinch. That's just sound strategy. Now if Josh had tried to stand toe-to-toe with his opponant and kept eating knees, I'd have wondered what he was doing...

[Ou Ji]

Kos was all over his opponent (forget his name) and got the full mount a number of times. A lot of guys are hard pressed to survive being mounted which makes me wonder why Kos couldn't finish. Seems he had enough opportunities.

Same fight, I agree Kos was kicking butt. Like I said, trying to figure out why he couldn't finish. I don't have that good of an eye for this stuff but I don't recall him going for any submissions, just trying to be macho or something and finish with a KO or blood. It's a ***** seeing someone who is clearly winning go down .30 from a win.

Just seems to me like he was more focused on mount and pound than winning ASAP. Can you explain how he could dominate so much yet fail to end it numerous times?

In contrast Leben was also poised to move up and he did so by taking the win any way he could.

And the Petrecelli fight on TUF 2 was another odd one to me. Friends not wanting to hurt each other? I have a friend that did some training down at Marcio Simas in Orlando and he said they're hard core. Seth didn't have a problem hurting Bob Sapp. I just don't understand what's going on in thier heads sometimes. These opportunities don't come along all the time.

[Merryprankster]

Kos was rarely in a completely controlling position. He rarely had a full mount or totally settled side control. Rather, his opponent was doing a good job keeping things moving.

In that situation, you are free to punch, but less free to submit. Punching is less risky, as all submissions require that you exchange near total control of your opponent for the opportunity to end things. From half-guard and guard, your submission options are limited, and your chance to wind up in a bad spot increase substantially.

As we saw, Kos was taking down his opponent to avoid the stand-up game. A submission attempt may have been too risky. Certainly, Kos' opponent had a decent ground game, and was doing well at putting body parts between him and Kos each time Kos tried to shut down space and really control him. I suspect he didn't feel comfortable slapping on a submission without having good control.

As to the knockout followed by a choke, that's the way fighting goes. Turns on a dime.