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Lytle: I'm not counting on anyone for help

After disposing of KyleBradley in 33 seconds at UFC 81 in February, Chris "Lights Out" Lytle wanted to get back in the Ultimate Fighting Championship Octagon and compete again as soon as possible. When he was told he'd have to wait until July to fight the Indiana resident was disappointed, but the disappointment quickly diminished when he was told he'd be taking on top-five ranked Josh Koscheck.

"I'm really excited. After my last fight I wanted to fight immediately," said Lytle. "I told them I wanted to fight in May. They were like, 'yea, yea, yea.' They kind of pushed it back until June. I was like, all right. Then they told me July. I was like, awe man. After they told me who I was fighting I was pretty fired up, so I said, 'Yea, I'll wait until July.'

"At first I was kind of thinking, huh? I was surprised a little bit. Then the first thing that popped in my head was he's a wrestler who is going to try to hold me down. After about three seconds, I thought this could be an exciting fight. He's not just one-dimensional anymore. He's turned into a complete fighter, so I got real excited then. I was like, yea, that's a good fight."

We've seen Lytle matched up against strong wrestlers in the past. He fought former UFC welterweight title-holder Matt Hughes at UFC 68 in March of 2007. Hughes secured several takedowns and was able to grind out a decision win.

"As we all know, I've lost a lot of decisions, a lot of split decisions, a lot of close decisions. Part of my problem was thinking the refs were going to stand it up more," commented the "Ultimate Fighter Season 4" finalist.

"Now I'm not counting on the refs. I'm not counting on the judges. I'm not counting on anybody to help me. If I get down, I'm not going to wait around. I've been working on getting back to my feet so I can punch people. I'm not counting for anyone for help. You don't know what's going to happen in a fight. You can't really count on anything helping you out, so I'm going to count on myself."