Erik Koch wins another UFC bout

By Kerry Howley

NEW ORLEANS - It wasn't the knockout he was hoping for, but Cedar Rapids native Erik Koch racked up yet another UFC win on Saturday in New Orleans, bringing his record to 13-1 while moving ever closer to contention for a title shot.

Koch, 22, won a unanimous decision over Jonathan Brookins, 26, a Portland, Oregon native with a considerable following.  Koch defied Brookins' relentless takedown attempts over three rounds while delivering some hard leg kicks and a few solid jabs.

But it was a slow fight, mostly pressed against the cage as Brookins repeatedly tried and failed to score a single-leg take down. The crowd booed loudly in the third round, eager for Brookins to release from the clinch and bang.

“He couldn't take me down and he couldn't land anything,” said Koch after the fight, though he acknowledged that Brookins could take a beating. “The leg kick was landing solid, but he just walked forward like a caveman. “

Brookins was the winner of  Season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter, the reality television show that has brought the UFC to mainstream America. On screen, Brookins' character was that of the nicest newcomer to MMA: soul-searching, yoga-practicing, humble and eager to learn his craft. Originally a lightweight at 155, Brookins dropped to 145 to see how he'd perform as an unusually tall featherweight.  From the beginning, the fight was thought to be a tough featherweight debut for Brookins, who had taken considerable time off to nurse an injury.

 Koch knew right away that he'd won the decision, but after two pitch-perfect first round knockouts-both of which earned much coveted and well remunerated “knockout of the night” honors-he wasn't satisfied with the anticlimatic ending.

 “I wanted to finish,” said Koch, “everybody knows that I'm a finisher, knockout artist, stand up dude.”

 Koch was emotional after the fight, brought to tears in the octagon. After four straight wins, he believes he has earned his place among the top featherweights in the world. “If not a title shot,” he says, “a title contention shot. I definitely think I'm up there in the top 3. A rematch with Chad Mendes I would love. I feel like I'm going in there and dominating.”

 Koch has come a long way. When he debuted in 2009 at WEC-the fighting organization that has since been swallowed by the UFC-- he was a pasty 19-year-old with no hype, no entourage, and an obscure fighting pedigree from Cedar Rapids, a city no one associated with top-flight MMA.

When he arrived in New Orleans on Tuesday, Koch was the No. 6-ranked featherweight. He came newly tanned, with a posse of fighters and friends from Cedar Rapids, all outfitted in T-shirts bearing his nickname, “New Breed.” He came, too, as a flagship fighter from one of the most celebrated gyms in the country – Duke Roufus' Milwaukee-based Roufusport-and big expectations following his previous pair of knockouts.

 Koch was reflective after the fight. “Eight, nine years ago I was training on an 8 by 8 mat in a basement. No one knew what the UFC was! It was me and my brother grappling in the grass. All of this-being one of the highest ranked fighters in the world-came from having fun in my brother's basement.”

 It was Koch's brother, Keoni, now a head coach of the Cedar-Rapids-based Team Hard Drive, who introduced him to MMA.  Though Koch wasn't given time to speak to the audience after the fight, he had something planned. “To my brother back home,” he wanted to say, dedicating his 13

 “I'm an emotional fighter,” Koch told the media after the fight, “This is my life. I train four times a day. I get up at 9 a.m. and sometimes don't get done until midnight. This fight was for me, a pat on the back to get rid of some of those demons.”

^th

win to his very first training partner.