Josh Koscheck has been one of the most consistent fighters representing the Bay Area in the sport of MMA, but he could now be on his way out. There were reports of Koscheck having issues with his camp, the American Kickboxing Academy in the buildup to UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit, (where Koscheck defeated Mike Pierce via a controversial split decision) and now those reports have been confirmed, by the man himself. In an interview with MMAWeekly, Koscheck stated what he didn't like about his long-time training camp:
"This goes back from quite a bit, and history repeats itself. Whenever you have a guy for example whenever I had the loss against (Thiago) Alves and I took the fight on short notice with him, and after the fight I had a lot of friends come up to me and calling me saying ‘have you read this interview with Javier Mendez?' and talking about me and my game plan," Koscheck said.
There's more to it at the link above, but in so many words, Koscheck isn't happy with the way the head of the camp, Javier Mendez, handles himself. According to Koscheck, Mendez rarely takes any of the blame for a poor performance, despite the fact that fighter's depend on him and his camp so much. It's true to varying degrees, but it only has to be a little bit true to take hold in this regard.
A training camp represents a bond of trust, between the fighters who take part in it and the coaches who hold said fighter's career in their hands. While each fighter deserves the largest slice of the blame for his or her loss, the camp should always assume responsibility, at least in this writer's opinion. Mendez is not someone who has done that with anything approaching regularity in the past.
MMA Nation also reported that Dave Camarillo, AKA's grappling coach, left the camp, but denied any differences were involved. He simply wised to spend more time running his two gyms and teaching classes.
Koscheck is from Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, but has been training with AKA in San Jose for almost six years, and officially fights out of Fresno, CA. If he moves his camp elsewhere, the Bay Area could be without one of its best fighters representing it. Still, AKA features some of the best fighters in the sport and, while this is worrying, it's not a trend yet.