Photo by MMA Mania.
After edging Mike Pierce in a hard-fought split decision, Josh Koscheck announced that he has parted ways with long-time team American Kickboxing Academy. This follows closely on the news that AKA grappling coach Dave Camarillo had also left the camp.
MMA Weekly got the scoop on the motivations behind Koscheck's departure and as you'd expect Koscheck pulls no punches:
"There's one reason I'm leaving San Jose AKA and that's because of Javier Mendez," Koscheck stated. "He's the only reason I'm leaving that gym. It almost hurts me because I love training with those guys, I love training with (Jon) Fitch, and (Mike) Swick and Cain (Velasquez) and (Daniel) Cormier, and (Justin) Wilcox and all those guys, they are my brothers, and it hurts me to have to make this decision for me because the fact that it's like splitting up the family.
"This goes back from quite a bit, and history repeats itself. Whenever you have a guy for example whenever I had the loss against (Thiago) Alves and I took the fight on short notice with him, and after the fight I had a lot of friends come up to me and calling me saying ‘have you read this interview with Javier Mendez?' and talking about me and my game plan," Koscheck said.
"So I went online and I read this interview and I started to notice after all my teammates lost, it was the same thing. They didn't listen to the game plan, that he deferred it away from himself, and he threw us under the bus basically saying that we didn't listen to him and he tries to make himself look good, so it doesn't reflect on him us losing."
Koscheck will continue to be managed by "Crazy" Bob Cook's Zinkin Entertainment and will train out of his own gym in Fresno. Cook remains an active partner at AKA. AKA remains the training home of former UFC heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez and top welterweight Jon Fitch. Koscheck plans to continue training with Dave Camarillo and former AKA teammates like Jon Fitch.
In an interview with MMA Nation, Camarillo denied any personal differences were involved in his departure from AKA, stating that he simply wished to spend more time running his two gyms and teaching classes rather than training fighters.
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0 recs | 51 comments
So now he'll fight Fitch?
Amiright?
SteamboatWillie - February 6, 2012
Doubtful
Afrotikiman - February 6, 2012 via mobile
They already asked Kos
And he said “good luck getting that fight to happen”. So I guess: no.
KGNLuc - February 6, 2012
No.
Zachary Kater - February 6, 2012
did you read the interview?
he said he loves training with Fitch and the guy was the best man for fitch’s wedding.
they will never fight against each other.
DK_Monster - February 6, 2012
Koscheck the best man at a wedding?
That can only mean the toast to the couple could only have been a roast.
UncleMax - February 6, 2012
"He's going to lay on top of you for 25 minutes and you're gonna walk away with your cherry in tact!"
menckenstein - February 6, 2012
camera's off, Josh.
The Hamburger Pimp - February 6, 2012 via mobile
I should have used
the sarcasm signal light. Thought it was obvious.
SteamboatWillie - February 6, 2012
Reminds me of MFS
Will this be the start of the collapse of AKA as a premier team?
menckenstein - February 6, 2012
As good as AKA is
For whatever reason their top fighters repeatedly lose at the final hurdle. Only Cain won a title and he never defended. Kos lost his title fight badly, as did Fitch, and Swick lost his #1 contender’s fight.
If anything, I think Team Takedown could be a camp on the rise. Jake Rosholt has picked up some decent wins, Hendricks is contending, but what holds them back is Shane Roller, who has no business being in the UFC.
SSreporters - February 6, 2012
As to Shane Roller...
I’m surprised he wasn’t cut after the loss to Michael Johnson, making it three straight.
In such a stacked division with an abundance of wrestlers, I have a feeling he won’t be long in the UFC.
sgiblin - February 6, 2012
you guys are hating on Roller
but I thought he won the Johnson fight and is a real talent.
Nate Wilcox - February 6, 2012
Not hating on him at all.
He’s lost three in a row. That’s dangerous territory for a wrestler.
Which rounds did you give to Roller? IIRC, Johnson took 1 and 2 fairly easily.
sgiblin - February 6, 2012
3 by 2 points
and 1 very close.
but agree its easy to score it for Johnson in the 10 point must, but Roller clearly won the FIGHT which is why I hate the 10 point must
Nate Wilcox - February 6, 2012
Pride format was pretty great in that regard
I really liked 10 minute opening round. Would be a lot better for high level bjj guys who complain about lacking time to work their game.
menckenstein - February 6, 2012
Johnson is a talent or Roller?
Roller has lost 4 of 6 and gets stopped a lot. Five times out of six defeats.
Also, Shane is 32, if he’s still losing to unranked lightweights his ship has sailed.
SSreporters - February 6, 2012
I’ve always been a vocal fan of Roller, but it’s become pretty obvious at this point that he just isn’t advancing the way one needs to be considered a real talent. You could say that even in a loss he still looks good, but you can also say that in the UFC at least even in his wins he has looked bad…
Empty Thoughts - February 6, 2012
I would only start to worry worry if Cormier, Bob Cook, or if Velasquez leaves
discoandherpes - February 6, 2012
I’m not exactly the biggest Koscheck fan, but for once I agree with him completely. Javier Mendes lets his ego get in the way of everything and honestly, he comes off as an ass. I remember after Cain lost to JDS, Mendes basically shitted all over him saying he “lost the calm of a champion”, “he didn’t listen to the gameplan”, so on and so forth. I can expect that from Dana White but not from the head coach of a prominent camp. He should been saying instead “Cain got caught, we’ll come back even stronger next time around”. Not cool at all.
Check it out for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6u69gg0krU&feature=player_embedded
andrew861 - February 6, 2012
Just watched...
Yep, confirmed douche bag!
NorCalTransplant - February 6, 2012
Especially considering
how much he hyped his relationship with Cain in all the promo material- but throwing Cain under will have more potential fallout than Kos, IMO. Maybe not immediately, but this could indeed be the start of a little migration to other camps.
DankNabbot - February 6, 2012
Yeah I was going to say the same thing
I don’t really like Kos. I think he’s obnoxious (but atleast he’s not boring)
But good for him, standing up for what he believes in. Hope he finds success in his new gym.
HeadKickLegSweep - February 6, 2012
Good for him!
Looks like Koscheck found a bigger douche bag than himself. :)
NorCalTransplant - February 6, 2012
UFC 143 Results?
There really is no boundary for the keyword-schtick, is there?
KGNLuc - February 6, 2012
there's still a ton of search traffic
we’re always trying to attract new readers to the community. esp to replace those we ban. like you.
Nate Wilcox - February 6, 2012
Boom.
Sabate - February 6, 2012
What did that bike ever do to Alistair?
That question haunts me until this day.
menckenstein - February 6, 2012
It swung at him in the club..
…while he was on his way to the restroom.
Sabate - February 6, 2012
Damnit Schwinn... I told you to be careful
menckenstein - February 6, 2012
a ban for that? really?
thirdparty - February 6, 2012
Did you really just ban him for that?
Drunken cutman - February 6, 2012
It's rule #4.
Sabate - February 6, 2012
That’s ridiculous.
Simen - February 6, 2012
It kind of irks me to agree with
Koschek, but I find myself surprisingly applauding him- I don’t think this is an easy transition and took some balls to make.
DankNabbot - February 6, 2012
Swick still fighting?
He hasn’t fought for a year.
BadB - February 6, 2012
Swick's fighting injuries
So he’s David Terrell 2.0.
SSreporters - February 6, 2012
No. David Terrell had the talent to beat anybody in the world at 185 and people knew how good he was from the get-go. Nobody scored a point on him throughout several years of high level grappling competition and his striking was better than Shields’s is now. A combination of psychological factors and recurrent injuries put him out of the UFC and he now has a good grappling school in NorCal. David could have been the guy to prevent Anderson Silva from making the dominant title run that he has.
Swick never had the talent of Terrell or the hype. It’s a shame that the esophageal disorder is keeping him out this long, but he will not go on the List of MMA’s Greatest Disappointments like Terrell has.
Ben Thapa - February 6, 2012
Yeah right dude.
David Terrell ain’t got nothing on the Swickotine.
sgiblin - February 6, 2012
2 years today
February 6th, 2010
Chris Groves - February 6, 2012
Any word on what camp Koscheck will be moving to?
He’ll be a good addition to someone’s gym.
CB_MMA - February 6, 2012
Read the article..
Horselover Fat - February 6, 2012
I must be blind because I'm not seeing it.
I see that Camarillo says he will continue cornering him (and Fitch) but does that mean Koscheck is going to one of Camarillo’s gyms? I was under the impression Camarillo’s gyms were grappling schools versus full MMA gyms.
CB_MMA - February 6, 2012
Well it’s explained in the full article at MMAWeekly, well worth a read. Basically he’s going to be training at his own gym in Fresno, and just bring people in for training camps
Horselover Fat - February 6, 2012
Ah, thanks.
For some reason my head was thinking MMA Nation and was clicking on the Camarillo link at the bottom of the article rather than the MMA Weekly link at the top.
Not sure about this. Will be interesting to see who Josh brings in to work with him. San Jose and Fresno look to be almost three hours apart so I doubt he’ll be borrowing his friends from San Jose.
CB_MMA - February 6, 2012
Okay, gotcha.
Yeah it’s probably not the best situation to just work out at your own gym, but as he said he does make enough money to bring in trainers and fighters. He was obviously unhappy with his situation at AKA though so I guess it’s good to change that.
Horselover Fat - February 6, 2012
Camp Anawanna
menckenstein - February 6, 2012
-
Grappo - February 6, 2012
is that EDGE?
Rod Mapada - February 6, 2012
Think Anawana, speak Anawana, live Anawana....
MuseMan82 - February 7, 2012 via mobile
I noticed that when watching the AKA documentary
the head coach was in over his head.
Nodir Shermatov - February 6, 2012
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