Koscheck vs. Johnson added to UFC 106

With the heavyweight title fight being pulled from UFC 106 due to Brock Lesnar’s illness, the November 21 card was looking a little shaky. Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin is a decent headliner but doesn’t scream “can’t miss.” Obviously, the UFC recognized the Lesnar-sized hole in the lineup that even Ortiz’s ego couldn’t fill as Josh Koscheck has posted on Twitter that he’s been added to the card and Sherdog is reporting that his opponent will be Anthony Johnson.

Like them or not, you have to give the two welterweights respect for taking such a big fight on such short notice. Koscheck is coming off a TKO of Frank Trigg at UFC 103 and had been scheduled to face Mike Pierce at UFC Fight Night 20 on January 11.

Johnson, meanwhile, is on a three-fight winning streak that includes a 41-second KO of Yoshiyuki Yoshida at last Saturday’s UFC 104. Hopefully, Johnson hasn’t packed on too much weight in the four days since the fight – he failed to make weight by a whopping six pounds after cutting down from 220 and it cost him the Knockout of the Night bonus. He also should have been further penalized for his in-cage celebration: he behaved as though he’d just knocked out Georges St. Pierre and not a middling competitor half his size.

As for what this match-up means for the welterweight division, a win by either fighter moves them closer to title contention, although I’m not convinced either would deserve a shot at GSP right away. A better scenario would be to have the winner face the winner of UFC 105’s Mike Swick vs. Dan Hardy to determine the top contender.