Following his UFC 82 victory over Dustin Hazelett, Josh Koscheck became a free agent; but the Top Ten ranked welterweight expects to re-sign with the Ultimate Fighting Championship and work his way into title contention.

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to be with the UFC," said The Ultimate Fighter season one alumnus.  "I know my manager and the UFC are in talks right now, so that's up to them.  If the UFC wants me, I want to be in the UFC.  For me, it's my home.  I started my career there and hopefully I'll end my career there.  It's the place to be right now, and it's a good time to be a UFC fighter.

"I let my management do all of that.  My job is to train.  My job is to fight.  Their job is to represent me."

The fight with Hazelett was his tenth fight in the UFC.  Expecting to re-sign, Koscheck is focused on putting himself in a position to get a shot at the welterweight title.

"I honestly don't care who I fight.  I want the fight to make sense in order for me to get back to getting a title shot.  If I can get a good three wins in a row, hopefully I can be a contender again and get a chance to fight for that title and get that belt," he told MMAWeekly.com.

"That's the ultimate goal is to get that UFC title and that's like the Super Bowl right now... That's the belt to have right now and that's the belt I want."

Koscheck may not care whom he fights, but Diego Sanchez has made it known that he'd like a rematch with the American Kickboxing Academy-trained fighter.  Asked about Sanchez, Koscheck said, "I think when you lose a fight, you want it really bad.  It took me two years to get a rematch with Diego, so what makes him think he wins one fight and he can step right up and get a rematch?

"I think I'm in his head,” he continued. “He's only been thinking and focusing about me for the last year.  It's actually kind of nice.  He's in the same shoes I was after The Ultimate Fighter.  For two straight years I woke up every morning hating Diego Sanchez.

"If it makes sense and the UFC wants it and the fans want it, I'll do it, but he's going to be pissed off after the fight again because he's going to have another two years to set back and pout and cry because I'm going to kick his ass."

Since Koscheck’s emergence in mixed martial arts, wrestling enthusiasts have been chomping at the bit to see Koscheck vs. Matt Hughes and it's a fight he would relish.

"Matt Hughes, he's been a great champion.  I don't have anything against him.  I'm definitely going to try to hype the fight up as much as possible if we could get it, but I don't know if he wants to fight me.  I think he wants to fight Matt Serra and retire, but if he's willing to step up, I'll sign that contract tomorrow," said the 29-year-old fighter.

Training out of AKA in San Jose, Calif., Koscheck’s teammates include two other top contenders in the UFC welterweight division in Jon Fitch and Mike Swick.  Questioned if he'd ever consider fighting a teammate, Koscheck responded, "Money talks brother.  Money talks, and I can guarantee you Jon Fitch would say the same thing.

"Unless it makes good sense, we have a good atmosphere.  We're good friends.  I think unless it makes sense, it's going to be very hard to get us to fight at this point in our careers."

He continued, "Now if me, Jon Fitch and Mike Swick clean out the whole division like Anderson Silva did, then what else is there for us to do?  We've got to fight each other and we would know that.  It would be a mutual agreement that this is how it's going to work and we fight each other.
 

"Right now, there's probably not any sense for us to talk about it because there's a lot of guys in that welterweight division that still need their butt's kicked and the AKA boys are probably going to have to do that."

For the latest on Josh Koscheck, visit his website at www.kos-check.com and his clothing company at www.marclothing.com. 

To view MMAWeekly's UFC 82 post-fight video interview with Koscheck, follow the link:

JOSH KOSCHECK IN THE CAGE VIDEO INTERVIEW