UFC 143: Mike Pierce Wants To Beat Josh Koscheck For The Fans

As Mike Pierce prepares for his upcoming fight against Josh Koscheck at UFC 143, he sees it as a good opportunity to not just get a big win for himself but also to do something for the fans. That's because Pierce doesn't think most fans like Koscheck, so they would probably enjoy seeing him get knocked out. Pierce spoke to NW Fight Scene and said of his upcoming fight:

"I think this is a good opportunity for myself. I think this is a good opportunity for everyone who hates Josh Koscheck, which seems to be a lot of people, to watch him get his a** kicked."

"I wanna give the fans what they want to see. I think the fans want to see him get his a** knocked out and have him shut up a little bit."

When Pierce was specifically asked about whether there is any real tension or anything personal between him and Koscheck, he said there is not, but he still doesn't care for Koscheck's overly confident demeanor:

"You know, I don't know. In the beginning when I first started getting into MMA everyone watched The Ultimate Fighter 1 and he was one of the guys on there. I've always been partial to wrestlers, that's my background, that's his background. I still root for wrestlers all the time over anyone. But, he's kinda one of those guys, in my opinion, that doesn't embody what a wrestler is all about. He's got that arrogance, that attitude, that cockiness that I really just don't care for. And, I'm not alone in that - I think the majority of the fans don't care for that side of him and I just wanna shut him up a little bit."

When he faces Koscheck on Saturday night, Pierce says he'll be ready for either a stand-up or a ground battle, but he does think the fight will go to the ground at some point given both his and Koscheck's wrestling backgrounds. Pierce has been training some of everything and he anticipates that the fight will go all over - on the ground, in the clinch and standing. Pierce wants to press the action and try to wear Koscheck down.

Before this fight was booked in the aftermath of the Georges St. Pierre knee injury and the UFC 143 fight card shuffle, Pierce called out Koscheck but Koscheck initially didn't seem like he was going to take the fight. It took some additional calling out and some behind-the-scenes negotiations but eventually Koscheck did agree to the fight and the match-up was set. Pierce says he understands why Koscheck may have been initially reluctant to take a fight with him and sees a big advantage for himself in getting this fight:

"I see this as a fight that wasn't really desirable for him [Koscheck]. I don't think he wanted to fight a guy like me. I don't think that I'm an easy for anyone but I don't really have that name value like a Matt Hughes or some of these other guys that he would really like to use a stepping stone to try and get beat up by GSP again. So, I think he has everything to lose and I have everything to gain."

Pierce was also asked about the animosity between himself and former teammate Rick Story and former coach Pat White at Brave Legion. In November, Pierce appeared on a radio show and described an incident where White told Story to spar very hard with a new guy who was also apparently suffering from vertigo. Many people came down hard on Story for the alleged incident and some mused that the two should just fight to settle their differences. But would Pierce take a fight with Story and does he even want one? He says:

"Yeah, I would take the fight. Is it a fight I really care to have right now in my career? No. I don't really care. People keep thinking that I had a beef with Ricky. I never did."

When asked if his beef was more with Pat White, Pierce said:

"Yeah. I mean, I didn't agree with a lot of things that were going on up there, and I don't need to get into specifics, but I made a decision to leave and I did. To me, the topic's been dead for a while and only recently in the not so distant past did it kinda brought up again and I explained my position on it."

Pierce says if the Story fight happens, it's fine, but he's focusing on Josh Koshcheck right now and not worrying about Rick Story. And, how does he see the Koscheck fight playing out?

"I see it going down with him moving backwards a lot of the fight, getting beat up. I want to see him drown in the deep water."

The interview video is after the jump.