UFC Wednesday Night Betting - KOSCHECK VS. YOSHIDA

The UFC will be presenting a "Fight for the Troops" on Wednesday night at 9 PM ET, televised by Spike TV, with the proceeds going to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which benefits Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who were disabled. Only members of the military base at Fort Bragg will be able to attend the event, which is held at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

In the main event, Josh Koscheck, last seen losing at UFC 90, will be taking on Yoshiyiuki Yoshida in a welterweight matchup.

BetUS UFC Online Betting Odds

Welterweights -- December 10

Fayetteville, N.C.

JOSH KOSCHECK -240

YOSHIYUKI YOSHIDA +190

KOSCHECK (11-3, 2 KO's, 4 submissions) has an extremely strong background as a wrestler. In fact, on year at Edinboro State (Pa.) he went undefeated, winning an NCAA title and All-America honors. he entered the UFC via "The Ultimate Fighter," and quickly gained an audience with his "bad boy" image. In his UFC career he has beaten people like Diego Sanchez, Dustin Hazelett and Chris Lytle, who he grounded and pounded into oblivion. he has demonstrated the ability to take a pounding of sorts as well; in one of his three losses, he went the entire distance with welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre (that is, before GSP won the title). he would seem ready for anything, and at all times. He took his last fight on just two weeks notice, coming in as a substitute for Diego Sanchez to battle Thiago Alves. In that bout he had a tough time in the stand-up, and with Alves' leg kicking, and wound up on the short end of a decision. But there are very few welterweights in the world who really want to get into a ground match against Koscheck; GSP did, and got the better of it, though it was to the tune of just a one-point margin on two of the three judges' scorecards. And he was the exception rather than the rules.

His opponent, YOSHIDA (10-2, 6 KO's, 2 submissions) is a newcomer to UFC competition. But he comes into this bout on a nine-fight winning streak. He is a veteran of Shooto matches in Japan, and holds a one-round win over Pancrase champion Katsuya Inoue. Last December he won the Cage Force tournament in the welterweight division, and as a result wound up getting a four-fight contract with the UFC. He has fought just once in the UFC, and in that one he choked out Jon Koppenhaver on May 24 at UFC 84. Yoshida was supposed to fight again, at UFC 88, but his encounter with Karo Parisyan was wiped out on the day of the fight when Parisyan pulled out, claiming an injury.

In examining the angles here, it may be useful to understand the back story. This may be Koscheck's last fight with the UFC. There is an exclusive contact, or clause to a contract, that is being put forward by Dana White, in which fighters would sign away lifetime merchandise rights to a video game. One of Koscheck's stablemates with the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), Jon Fitch, would not sign the deal, and was dismissed from the organization, though he eventually inked the deal. But Koscheck has not, and so they could be sending him packing.