Bellator CEO Scott Coker has suggested that Josh Koscheck should seriously consider hanging up his gloves after making an unsuccessful debut in the promotion last month.
Coker had handed the 39-year-old a lifeline after he was released by the UFC in 2015 after a five-fight losing streak, but Koscheck’s first fight for his new promotion against the 37-year-old Brazilian journeyman Mauricio Alonso at Bellator 172 only continued his slump, losing by TKO in the opening round.
“That’s up to him,” Coker told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour show when asked if Koscheck should retire. “Really, that’s a tough one, man. I feel like it’s probably, maybe time to let it go. We had high hopes, honestly. We thought we could put him in, but I think the body just is not there anymore. I think it might be time to let it go, but that’s up to him, because let’s say we say, ‘okay, it’s over, we don’t want to do it, we can’t do it anymore,’ he’s going to go fight somewhere else. He’s going to fight in another league. If he really wants to fight, he’s going to keep fighting.
“I think that we should probably have a sit-down conversation and really talk through it, and say, ‘what are the goals here for the next four or five years? You have a great business.’ He’s got an amazing business. Hey, go focus on the business. Build your next career and teach and train and work out. But to fight on a competitive level, especially in our league or another big one, it’s going to be tough, man. There’s some killers out there.”
