Yoshida still after Koscheck fight
For the second time in as many fights, Yoshiyuki Yoshida had the rugged pulled out from under him. His latest scheduled matchup, Josh Koscheck, was tapped to step in on short notice to face Thiago Alves at UFC 90 in Chicago on Oct. 25.
But all is not lost as Yoshida's manager, Shu Hirata, confirmed to MMAWeekly.com that his fighter will still compete on the Dec. 10 UFC Fight for the Troops card, possibly still against Koscheck.
There has also been speculation that Diego Sanchez may take up the spot against Yoshida in the main event for the UFC Fight for the Troops show.
"Yoshiyuki 'Zenko' Yoshida is fine with fighting Koscheck even though he is taking on Thiago Alves on Oct. 25th," Hirata told MMAWeekly.com "UFC only informed him that 'maybe' Sanchez if Koscheck is not healthy for Dec. 10.
"Nothing is concrete in terms of possibility for fighting Sanchez, so for now Yoshida is just concentrating on Koscheck. Yoshida has seen almost all of Koscheck's fight on DVD so right now he is only thinking versus Josh Koscheck"
The last fight Yoshida was scheduled for was a September showdown against Karo Parisyan, but that fight was cancelled when Parisyan was injured in training the day before the event.
The Japanese judoka currently holds a 1-0 record in the Octagon, submitting former Ultimate Fighter cast member War Machine in his first matchup.