(Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Photo courtesy of MMA Mania.)
The UFC’s “Fight for the Troops” event — which airs free on SpikeTV on Wednesday, December 10th, at 8 p.m. ET — got a proper main event today, as it was confirmed that Josh Koscheck will be facing off against Yoshiyuki Yoshida in a welterweight contest. Koscheck has gone 2-0 since losing to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 74, and most recently pounded all the blood out of Chris Lytle at UFC 86 in July. Yoshida (10-2) easily won his UFC debut against War Machine in May, and was supposed to fight Karo Parisyan last month at UFC 88 but Parisyan pulled out at the last minute due to a back injury.
“Fight for the Troops” will be held at the 8,500-seat Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina, not at Fort Bragg as was originally reported. (Apparently the UFC announced the venue before getting official clearance from the U.S. Army; a medium-sized Fail.) The event is intended to raise funds for the construction of The National Intrepid Center of Excellence, and attendance will be free for members of the armed services. Other featured matches include Mike Swick vs. Jonathan Goulet, Frankie Edgar vs. Matt Wiman, Luigi Fioravanti vs. Brodie Farber, and Eddie Sanchez vs. Justin McCully.
One serviceman who won’t be fighting at the event is former Marine/WEC light-heavyweight champ Brian Stann, who was forced to pull out of his rubber match against Steve Cantwell due to a broken foot; no word yet on a replacement opponent for Cantwell. Luke Cummo is also out due to injury, and he will be replaced by Johnny “The Hater Hurter” Rees in his scheduled fight against Steve Bruno.
In other UFC news, MMA Training reports that the TUF 8 finale (December 13th, location TBA) will be headlined by a match between Clay Guida and Kurt Pellegrino, not Guida and Nate Diaz as was previously rumored.
