On Saturday July 5, Patrick Cote will enter the cage at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and will stare down one of his toughest opponents to date, Ricardo Almeida.
The Quebec native is starting to make his presence known in the UFC middleweight division. However, Cote is not taking his opponent, Almeida lightly.
“This guy is no joke. I respect him a lot, but this is my time now and I’ll do what I have to do to win this fight,” Cote told MMAMania.com. “I’m so confident right now.”
The fight will see a stand-up fighter in Cote against a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (or ground) fighter in Ricardo Almeida. Cote has confidence in his stand-up and believes he can keep the fight up.
“I train with the national wrestling team here. Some guy who’s going to the next Olympic games and I both do very well,” Cote said. “But if the fight go on the ground I’ll fight, I’m not scared to go on the ground, it’s not a BJJ fight, it’s MMA battle.”
A win over Almeida gives Cote a clear road to a middleweight title shot.
“We’ll see how I’ll beat him,” Cote said in reference to Almeida and the title picture. “But I don’t think about that. It’s all about Almeida now.”
Cote’s last fight went well. “The Predator” scored first round technical knockout victory over Drew McFedries. Cote was slated again to fight at UFC 83 against Alan Belcher, but bowed out because of a knee injury after it was reported that he slipped on some ice.
“My knee is 100 percent. Don’t worry I’ll sprawl on him like if I had bionic knees,” Cote jokes.
With no injuries during training, Cote says that training has been perfect and that it has been one of his best training camps ever. Cote is eager to get back in the cage to face Almeida.
Cote has had the opportunity to work with such talents as Fabio Holanda at Brazilian Top Team Canada, as well as famed Muay Thai coach Mark DellaGrotte.
“I trust these guys so much and they work very well together,” Cote said. “They believe in me so bad than I can’t disappoint them.”
Cote has a 13-4 career MMA record. He’s won four straight fights (three of them in the UFC), since his he lost his last fight, which was against Travis Lutter in the middleweight final at the Ultimate Fighter season four finale.
Cote originally made his UFC debut in 2004 at UFC 50, fighting Tito Ortiz. Cote took the fight on short notice after Guy Mezger had to drop out of the fight. Despite the unanimous decision loss, Cote showed signs of promise by sticking it out with Ortiz.
“I made my name with this fight,” Cote said. “You can’t refuse a opportunity like that if you have balls.”
This Saturday night, we will see if Cote has what it takes to defeat Almeida and take one step closer to a UFC middleweight title shot. This is Cote’s greatest opportunity to shine on the Vegas stage.
28 Comments »
This fight is too close to call for me. One thing that I am positive about is that it is going to be a great fight.
great write up Andrew - Cote is pumped for this fight - looking forward to this one as much as I am the main event. Cheers.
Cote should win. Silva vs Cote will be a joke though. At least it will make for a fun addition to the growing Silva highlights.
I don’t think Cote is going to win at all. Almeida is disgusting with his BJJ, and Cote was exposed against Lutter. Before that fight, he had only really beat other strikers, with the exception of Jason McDonald. That fight is the only reason for anyone to believe he has a chance against Ricardo. The only other time he had faced a good submission artist was Doerkson, and guess what…he got submitted. Sure, he has a nice 4 fight winning streak going, but look at the guys he’s beat…Scott Smith (striker), Jason Day (striker), Drew McFedries (striker), and Kendall (more well rounded than the other three, but thinks of himself as a striker, and at the time of this fight he was a little too over confident, and thought he could trade with Cote). I think this fight is tailor made for Almeida, and I see him winning by early submission. You can say you’ve worked on your takedown defense and submission defense all you want, but when you get in there with a guy like Almeida it’s a different story. Cote is a solid fighter, but Almeida is more of a title contender. Cote is more of a, “find me a striker and I’ll put on a good show for the fans”, type of fighter. Definitely not championship caliber. Bad match up.
i agree, cote has heavy hands but not very good striking or ground game..
“Not very good striking” WHAT? Cote has some of the sweetest hands in MMA (with KO power to boot). 50% of Cote’s wins are by KO, so you might want to rethink that he isn’t a very good striker. Also his ground game isn’t the best, but it isn’t that bad either. He did sub Jason Macdonald and he went 3 rounds with Tito on top of him.
Tha spida took all my thunder. Couldn’t have summed it up any better. Lutter made Cote look bad. Almeida’s jits will expose Cote’s weak ground game again.
true so true
The spida: that was a great post! Almeida will win this fight. when u r so good on the ground, like Almeida is, u dont even need to take Cote down, all Ameida needs to do is pull guard and the fight is over. He doesnt need to be on top of cote on the ground to win, he can easily sub him off his back, or sweep him, get on top and then submit Cote.
I like both fighters, but like the spida said, Cote is a really good fighter, Almeida is a contender….The difference will show when Cote is forced to tap!
It’s a bad match alright, for Almeida. You forgot to mention what happened to Almeida last time he fought a striker HALF as good as Cote (50% T(KO’S). He got KTFO,is what happened and it WILL happen again when he fights Cote. I’m sure Cote has improved his ground game since he fought Lutter. The thing is, he has his confidence back ,so we haven’t seen him on the ground (only his opponents)LOL. So he won’t be starting out all cautious,and give his opponent time to work his ground game. He’ll be coming out with guns blazing and when he does that , his opponents have a first round NAP. Ricardo is going to sleep and you can bet on that.
neither one is ready for anderson silva…..
almeida should win this fight…..
but my guts tell me cote is gonna catch him with a right hook
I really want to see cote vs bisping.
I agree with many of the points above but even though Cote was submitted by Lutter he was overanxious in that fight, wanting to end it in highlight fashion in 10 seconds. He was rolling his fists like he was on the speedbag. Cote overcommitted early and Lutter took advantage. If that fight had went any length, Cote could have tired out Lutter and had a better chance for the win, although I doubt a win there would have made him a better fighter today. Since then, Cote has settled down some and is calmer, patient and focused, never forgetting to respect his opponent’s abilities. I do see him landing a right leading to a TKO win. Sounds kinda fairy-tale but that’s my take on it.
Perhaps Franklin next for Cote??
COTE ALL THE WAY!ITS MMA NOT BJJ!
..but el BJJ is the Core of MMA.. If the fight touches the mat…Cote will be in Deep Waters with a great white shark (Almeida)..I don’t think Cote could swim.
Phil: I totally agree! Cote and his fans keep talking about his amazing Sprawl….so what. Almeida’s jits is so good that all he has to do is pull guard and the fight will be over. He doesnt even need to shoot for a takedown. Cote’s sprawl will be useless. The fight will go to the ground, where the Big Dog will chew him up and spit him out!
and all of Almedia’s fans keeping talking about how god like his submissions are. They’re good, I’ll give him that, but he only submitted Rob Yundt. That guy is sh*t and a very small 185! I think you guys are gassing him up way more than you should. Give respect where respect is due. Cote is a warrior, a respectful fighter and always comes to fight. Not one of you say you don’t enjoy watching his fights. They are always exciting.
Spicoli: Do u have any idea who Almeida has fought through out his career? If all u know about him is that he submitted Rob Yundt, then u r a little under qualified to be talking about Almeida’s ground game. Make no mistake about it, he has an advantage over anyone he will face in the UFC’s middleweight division once the fight goes to the ground!
Cote does have exciting fights, but that doesnt translate into him beating Almeida. Sorry!
Cote does have a good shot in this fight, but I think Almeida is going to paint a ju jitsu masterpeice as soon as the fight hits the ground!!!!
My fault I should have elaborated more so. I agree that he has fought so good guys in the past. Chonan, Marquart and a few other tough Japanese guys. But that was 5 years ago and he’s only fought Rub Yundt since. If we’re going on past fights like we are with Cote against Lutter, then the last time Ricardo fought a decent striker (Semenov) he got KTFO. Now everyone’s saying that Cote got submitted so easily by Lutter 2 years ago. Given that was a bad fight for Cote, but who’s to say he hasn’t improved on his ground game in those 2 years. If we go by that logic, then Almedia’s striking hasn’t improved since he got knocked out in 2002.
I dunno, I’m just a firm believer in not judging a fighter’s abilities by past fights. Cote showed some good ground’n'pound against Grove so thats an improvement.
I’m also sure Almedia’s striking has improved over that time as well.
I’m just saying, give credit where credit is due. Any thing is possible. I have to admit however, I am a little worried about Cote’s chances on the ground.
watch pride much
Cote doesn’t have to worry about the ground,because when Almeida goes to the ground,he will be SLEEPING. Also Cote isn’t exactly a fish out of water on the ground. He submitted Jason Macdonald who has 80% submission victories.
I agree. Everyone is saying that Cote can’t handle Almedia on the ground, which I’m sure is a possibility. Almedia is a beast on the ground. But Cote is a beast on the feet. Where does the fight start? On the feet. All Cote has to do is keep it standing. I think its a lot harder for a fighter to take someone down, then it is to defend a takedown. Almedia has to go that one extra step and he’s going to eat hard powerful shots to get to that step. BJJ is a lot harder to do when your getting punched in the face as hard as Cote hits. Respect to both fighters though. Its hard to hit someone in the face when they’ve broke your arm from an armbar as well. I still give Cote the win though. I just can’t see him losing. Strikes are a lot better and if he can defend the takedown, its going to good night Ricardo!
Spicoli: IMO..it’s alot harder to keep it standing..then it is take a fight to the ground. Cote will be tight rope walking..Cote may get lucky..he can be the luckiest Mofo on July 5th..but with ” The Big Dog “..it will come down to ..how long will it take for the fight to hit the ground..cuz from that point on..Cote is in BIG TROUBLE, in LITTLE OCTAGON.
“Big Trouble, in Little Octagon”! lol./…I love it!
hehehehehehehehehe…yeah man..I got a crack out of it myself.
Nice job Andrew.
I’d love to see Cote’ win here, but I’ll have to agree that his chances of winning will end about 15-20 seconds into the 1st round. If he doesn’t catch him with a big “hail Mary” punch in the 1st exchange, it’s all over.
Almeida’s BBJ is sik.
This guy’s BJJ will have as much impact in the UFC as Anderson Silva’s different brand of striking brought to the UFC.
Really looking forward to the Championship match with Silva.
For me, will see if Coté improve his ground skill. After his lost vs Lutter, i think this is the real test for Coté about his ground game.
GL Coté! I hope he win be able to stop the takedown and land some rigbt hand to finish it by TKO (KO) !!!