GSP May Hold Mental Edge Over Koscheck

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For all his efforts at hackneyed trash talk during the twelfth season of “TUF,” Josh Koscheck still has to beat Georges St. Pierre in the one place it counts next Saturday: the Octagon.

When one fighter tries to trash talk after losing handily in a bout, the inability to get under the winner’s skin can be frustrating. For Ken Shamrock, the reality show build-up to his rematch with Tito Ortiz only blew up in his face, as Ortiz won both the war of words and the fight itself (as well as a third, equally one-sided encounter). To St. Pierre’s credit, he didn’t volley trash talk with his challenger, instead preferring to largely ignore and brush off Koscheck’s attempts to rattle him. It was pretty much a blueprint as to how a champion should carry himself against a challenger who’s seeking to rile him up.

The pair was interviewed on Saturday’s telecast as part of the final build-up toward their showdown in the main event of UFC 124, which will be held in St. Pierre’s backyard, Montreal, on Dec. 11.

“I’ve been pretty much looking at this like another fight,” Koscheck said. “When I fought Georges St. Pierre, I wasn’t very experienced.” Koscheck added that there are “a lot of question marks” surrounding the fight, and that “nobody knows which Georges St. Pierre will show up.”

Actually, that’s a question which nobody I know of has considered regarding St. Pierre lately. The French Canadian’s dominant performances only leave lingering questions of why he hasn’t finished opponents he’s bullied. The answer: Because he knows it’s better to win than give the other guy a chance to pull something out of a hat -- and because Dan Hardy is triple-jointed.

Relaxed and composed while contemplating the task at hand, St. Pierre could only have looked more confident if he had been holding a cat on his lap and wearing a smoking jacket.

“Josh says the pressure is on me, but it’s not true,” St. Pierre said. “When I beat him again Saturday, we’re not going to fight again.”

Koscheck took the opportunity to further play up his heel persona.

“I love Montreal. Are you kidding me? Enemy territory? They love me up there. Everybody loves Kos,” he said, smiling. “Wherever the fight is, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve got to perform and put on a show. If there’s 20,000 people yelling ‘G-S-P,’ it doesn’t matter.”

Koscheck is right -- it doesn’t matter. But, if this season’s “TUF” told us anything, it’s that St. Pierre has clearly been unfazed by Koscheck’s war of words.