Josh Koscheck on Bellator, Wonderboy Thompson and Dana White's Old Voice Mails

Josh Koscheck /Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images

Remember back when Josh Koscheck was the UFC’s ultimate heel? When he was feuding with Georges St-Pierre and whomever else he faced, camera crews fell all over themselves to record the Kos flying in one of his hobbyist airplanes over the landscape. You could almost see all the haters below him, inching along the highways like ants.

It’s a different Josh Koscheck that comes before you Saturday at Bellator 172, where he faces the all-but-anonymous Mauricio Alonso. Well, somewhat different. He’s 39 years old now. Time has probably pushed down his skill and athleticism. Injuries have held him off of more than one card. He hasn’t competed since 2015 and hasn't won since 2012.

The stats, though, have always told only a piece of the Koscheck story arc. And the smirk is still there; you can hear it in his voice. He can’t help but tell you how well he’s doing. Only now, as a more thoughtful elder statesman of the game, is he tempering it with more humility and magnanimity toward opponents and fans alike. 

But if you ask him the right question, he can still put on a show.

For the moment, back to the present day, where Koscheck is doing precious little to comfort his detractors. He owns four businesses now, three in his home base of Fresno, California, and one in North Carolina. They all keep him pretty busy—so busy he almost doesn't have time for this whole fighting business anymore.

So save the hard-luck assumptions about the fighter who needed one last paycheck. This is purely for the thrill of it, much like those hobbyist airplanes he still flies.

“I’m living the dream, man,” Koscheck said in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. “Why not, right? No pressure to pay my bills. You shine when you have no pressure to make money. The only pressure on me is to win. I’m excited about just winning.”

There have been other adjustments along the way. Long a trainee at Fresno’s American Kickboxing Academy, as Koscheck's body followed time down the rabbit hole, his workload didn't adjust accordingly, at least until those disks in his neck bulged out and forced the issue.

“I thought I was a young kid at the time, and I started training hard with guys and realized it just wasn’t gonna happen,” Koscheck said. “My body couldn’t keep up. It’s part of the game, I guess.”

Those bulging disks required extended idle time. But if the long break is raising the specter of ring rust or an adrenaline dump this Saturday (this is also Koscheck’s Bellator debut after they signed him in 2015), Koscheck said he has found the solution.

That solution? Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson. 

Remember Koscheck's business in North Carolina? While staying in that part of the country, Koscheck trained for 10 days with perhaps the welterweight contender and that region’s most famous fighter.

Stephen Thompson (right) /Julio Cortez/Associated Press/Associated Press

Not surprisingly to anyone familiar with Wonderboy, who elder-statesmen Koscheck calls "a very gifted young man," the two of them worked mainly on striking. But there was a side benefit.

“You get the jitters out in front of new people," Koscheck said. "Now I can get in there and be relaxed and let my hands go."

It's also helping Koscheck that he's happy with his promotional home. True, Bellator isn't the top dog, and no one would claim otherwise, but Koscheck points to intangibles as the real benefit of his move.

“It’s different fighting for Bellator,” he said. “Everyone gets along and are supportive of each other. They’re all about getting butts in the seats and getting fighters paid.”

It doesn’t take the Hubble telescope to see that shade. Koscheck doesn’t hold any ill will toward his old employers at the UFC. All the same, in classic Koscheck fashion, he can’t resist the urge to needle them. 

“You have to be in the UFC to know what it is,” Koscheck said. “You say a certain thing and you get a phone call and you’re fired. You can’t say certain things or do certain things. ... But I don't have any hard feelings. I know how hard it is to run a business, and I did pretty well over there.

In fairness, Koscheck isn't needling "them" so much as a certain "him."

"I have voice mails from years ago from Dana White calling me," he recalled. "He leaves a voice mail with the F-word 15 times in it, calling you a piece of s--t. It’s nice dealing with someone who’s not so challenged over here [in Bellator].”

On Saturday, Koscheck will have an opportunity to repay his new promotional home. A big name on a big Bellator card, Koscheck can impress with a win, despite the fact he's pushing 40.

"I know I'm gonna show up, and I know I'm gonna compete," he said. "You never know what's going to happen. I just gotta perform."

Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more, follow Scott on Twitter. All quotes obtained firsthand.