The UFC “Fight Night” card scheduled for Brazil on March 21 has seen the main card welterweight fight between Ben Saunders and Erick Silva go by the wayside as Saunders is out due to injury. The new opponent for Silva will be veteran Josh Koscheck (17-9), who fought just two weeks ago at the UFC 184 event, losing to Jake Ellenberger.
With injuries and drug suspensions taking their toll on the UFC’s roster, this is the second time in a few months they have to take one of their reliable veterans and have him fight just a few weeks apart. In January, Donald Cerrone was able to win his fight with Benson Henderson on a very short turn around to prove it is possible, but Cerrone’s career is at a completely different lace than Koscheck.
Koscheck, one one of the UFC’s top five welterweights, is now 37 years old and he has lost four fights in a row. After his last loss to Ellenberger, the talk of retirement hit a fever pitch, and Koscheck stated he wanted to finish out his contract. Taking this match may simply be a way for Koscheck to get the last fight of his contract done and ride off into the sunset.
Silva is now 30, and though he was once a well-regarded prospect, he has not been able to put together any kind of streak that would give him momentum. This will be the 10th fight of his UFC career, and he has never won two in a row or lost two in a row over the nine fights thus far.
This will give Silva a feather in his cap if he can score a win. In saunders, he was facing a very tall welterweight at 6 ft. 3 in., and Koscheck is a much more compact opponent. Saunders, like Silva, is still trying to ascend the rankings, while Koscheck is a veteran from the top level of the game. In the past, against Jon Fitch and Matt Brown, Silva has failed when he needed to step up against superior competition. Regardless of how faded Koscheck is, keep in mind Silva’s last outing was an impressive submission win in less than two minutes, but that performance came against Mike Rhodes, a fighter who is (0-3) in the UFC.
