Is this the end for Josh Koscheck? Should be, which is sad without being regrettable

Josh Koscheck

By the time he showed up on the post-fight show, Josh Koscheck had a couple fresh bruises on his forehead and a fifth consecutive loss on his professional record. Already he was talking about himself in the past tense.

“It’s been a good career,” Koscheck told FOX Sports 1’s Heidi Androl backstage in Rio de Janeiro. “I’ve been here for more than a decade, almost. It’s been fun.”

See, that sounds like a guy who knows he’s reached the end of the line, doesn’t it? He’s at least reached the end of his current contract. And since he hasn’t won a fight since 2012, you could be forgiven for doing the math on a late-career losing streak that started with Johny Hendricks at UFC on FOX 3 and continued all the way through Erick Silva (18-5 MMA, 6-4 UFC) in UFC Fight Night 62’s co-main event on Saturday, and coming to the conclusion that we’ve seen the last of Koscheck (17-10 MMA, 15-10 UFC) in the octagon (watch the Silva vs. Koscheck video highlights).

But no, he wouldn’t go that far. Not yet. Instead the veteran welterweight promised to “reevaluate life, reevaluate my career.” He had decided, it seemed, to decide at a later date. Because if there’s one thing 37-year-old professional fighters have, it’s the luxury of time.

The optimist in me wants to believe that Koscheck’s reluctance to call it quits is all a calculated ploy. With Bellator MMA waiting to scoop up any UFC reject who has not yet shredded every last iota of his own name value, and with WSOF building a bizarrely deep welterweight division almost by accident, there are options for a guy like Koscheck. Not great options, maybe, but he might figure that any paycheck from any source still beats unemployment.

As Koscheck teased the possibility of becoming a full-time FOX Sports analyst, it was tough to tell whether it was a hope or a threat. Maybe a little of both.

The UFC has shuffled fighters into jobs just to coax them into retirement before, so why not Koscheck? Why not give “The Ultimate Fighter’s” original villain an on-camera gig if it will get him to give up on getting punched in the head for a living?

Then again, as Koscheck said after his first-round submission loss to Silva, a part of him would “like to fight somebody my own age for once.”

Here’s where UFC President Dana White didn’t miss a beat in pointing out that there “aren’t many of those left,” leaving the rest of us to figure out for ourselves that there’s probably a very good reason.

The end of the line is a tough time to be the bad guy. Koscheck’s spent most of his career reveling in the hate, or at least pretending to. He was always quick to point out that, even if the very sight of his curly bleached blonde mop was enough to trigger the boo reflex in most fight fans, at least it meant he was generating a reaction, and therefore some measure of job security.

That was his story, anyway. Even though, after spending a few days at American Kickboxing Academy, where Koscheck trained for years before a somewhat acrimonious split, I recall teammate and fellow UFC welterweight Mike Swick questioning whether Koscheck really enjoyed playing the villain or whether he was simply making the best of it.

“He’s only human,” Swick said. “Nobody wants their family to turn on the TV and see them getting booed.”

Now, that passionate “boo!” has turned into more of a sorrowful “awwww.” Hating on him these days would feel almost like bullying. Whether he’s the architect of his own decline or not (remember that acrimonious split from AKA? It happened right around the time his losing streak began), you look at him in the year 2015 and you almost can’t help but see him for what he really is: another “TUF 1? alum confronting the inevitable.

Look around. Chris Leben’s gone. Kenny Florian’s on the other side of the cage, calling the action. Forrest Griffin is swinging by Zuffa headquarters to pick up a check while Stephan Bonnar bumps around in Bellator. Nate Quarry is busy suing the UFC. Diego Sanchez? Yeah, OK, Diego is still out there Diego-ing, to the surprise of exactly no one.

If this proves to be the end for Koscheck – and, let’s be honest, it probably should be – it will come with a different kind of sadness.

Even if you’re not sorry to see him go, a part of you almost has to feel some sense of loss at the idea of no longer having him around. He’s been a fixture in the UFC for a decade. He was someone who, one way or another, you had to care about as an MMA fan.

That’s exactly the sort of pre-packaged emotional investment that Bellator is paying for these days, and yet even the people who hate Koscheck the most would probably have to admit that it’s getting harder and harder to enjoy watching him lose.

It’s a complicated legacy, such as it is. It’s probably not the one he would have chosen for himself, either, but there it is.

He’s not going to get the tearful standing ovation on the occasion of his final exit. That’s never been our relationship with him. That would be disingenuous. But he should know that, even if the boos follow him all the way out the door, at least that means we were still watching, still following him with the force of our disdain, until he disappeared from sight.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 62, check out the UFC Events section of the site.