Pierce on Koscheck Loss: Everyone Thought I Won

“For whatever reason the judges seemed to be the only ones -- well, two out of three judges seemed to be the only ones that thought I didn’t win the fight,” Pierce told the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Savage Dog Show.” “Everybody else thought I won the fight. Even Dana [White] was voicing his opinion, saying that he thought I won the fight too. FightMetric had me outstriking him and winning 29-28. Man, it’s just craziness.”

All three judges scored the fight 29-28, with two for Koscheck and one for Pierce. Leading up to the decision, Pierce was confident he’d won.

“After that first round, I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got this guy,’” he said. “I felt really content about how the fight was going and the pace that we were at and the control and everything. Everything was great. I felt awesome and I knew that I had the fight. Even in that third round, I thought I had it. Everything was going my way. That’s why I was a bit surprised when it was a split the other way.”

Pierce was content with how he executed his strategy. He wanted to push Koscheck against the cage, work the clinch and also counter his wild right hands.

“It gave Josh Koscheck a lot of problems,” Pierce said. “I think I outstruck the guy. I think I certainly did more damage to him and landed the bigger shots.

For the most part, the two wrestlers stayed on their feet. Although Pierce feels he had the upper hand when it came to striking, he also said he could have done more to perhaps sway the judges.

“There was a lot of stiff jabs there that I was hitting him with, and I could have followed those up because they were landing solid,” he said. “There were at least a handful that I remember just popping him square in the mouth. Had I followed that up, it would have been an even bigger wow factor and something the judges could have remembered and jotted down in their notes as they were scoring the rounds.”

With that said, though, he still believes he deserved the nod in what would have been a breakthrough victory.

“You’ve got to make sure you’re the hands-down, clear-cut choice as to who the winner is, but sometimes that’s hard,” Pierce said. “… I mean, even GSP couldn’t finish Josh Koscheck on two different occasions. It’s not like he’s an easy fight for anyone, but there probably could have been things I could have done maybe a little differently for it to be a little more clear for everyone to know that I was the winner. But at the same time I think fighters have to improve, I think judging has to improve. I think refereeing has to improve. I think a little consistency would go a long way.”

Listen to the full interview (beginning at 1:16:42).