Welterweight championship aspirations were on the line in this 170-pound clash as rising star Johny Hendricks got past Josh Koscheck by the skin of his teeth.
Hendricks parlayed one of the most impressive collegiate wrestling careers into a great MMA career – The once beaten welterweight rides a three bout win streak capped off with a flash knockout of former number-two ranked welterweight Jon Fitch.
Koscheck fell short in his chance at dethroning divisional king George St-Pierre but since then has scored two-straight wins over former champ Matt Hughes and a close decision to powerhouse wrestler Mike Pierce.
The first bout on the FOX telecast to utilize the judges’ score cards was a thriller; as much as these two are different they also look like mirror images of one another at times, aside from Koscheck’s lack of an uber-manly beard like Hendricks.
These two powerful wrestlers split the audience down the middle with their split decision fight with both using their world-class wrestling to set up their power-strikes with the former Oklahoma Cowboy taking control early.
Koscheck took the reins later in the fight getting top-position and raining down shots but it was too little, too late as Hendricks did enough in the first ten minutes to get his hand raised.
