Posts from — July 2008

Cote tagging middleweight contender Drew McFedries before scoring a stoppage. Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Quebec, City native Patrick “The Predator” Cote was recently announced as the next contender for UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva’s middleweight crown.

In the initial press release at UFC.com, Cote was oozing with confidence as he said, “Everybody that fought Anderson Silva was scared of him; I’m not scared of him one bit. It’s gonna take him 10 straight punches to take me down - I only need one punch to take him down. I’m Patrick Cote, I win against grapplers and I know strikers out. I can’t wait to go to Chicago and take the belt home to Montreal.”

Unfortunately for Cote, Silva is the one guy who will land those 10 straight punches to the chin to send the Canadian to the canvas. Cote has morphed himself from a struggling middleweight that went 0-4 early in his UFC career to a middleweight that is currently atop the UFC middleweight latter with four straight victories.

This bout has quick stoppage written all over it and unfortunately, that quick stoppage will likely go in favor of Silva. It’s clear that Silva has the advantage in every aspect of the game. Cote doesn’t pose any problems that Silva hasn’t faced before.

Silva walked through Chris Leben, a fighter with one-punch knockout power who thought he could take 10 punches to land his one. He decimated Rich Franklin, a fighter who was once the king of the UFC middleweight division. He then stopped Dan Henderson, another fighter known for his iron chin and knockout power. And finally, Silva put a stamp on his status by moving up to 205 lbs but stopping slugger James Irvin.

With all of that being said, Sherdog.com caught up with Cote who provided more thoughts on the situation with Silva.

“I do this sport to be No. 1, so I can’t ask for more. To fight the best guy pound-for-pound in the world and to have a chance to get a title shot – it’s perfect,” said Cote. “I’m not scared of anybody – I said yes to fight Tito Ortiz on four days notice when I was in a different weight division, so to fight Anderson Silva is the ultimate goal for me. I want to be champion of my weight class.”

“I think I have the best style to fight this guy. I have a good chin, I’ll go forward, and I think every time he fights his opponent has already lost because he’s scared of him,” said Cote, who has never been knocked out in training. “I know that this guy is very, very good, but we have a good game plan for the fight, and I’m 100% confident that I will win.”

Hopefully Cote’s confidence plays a positive role in his bout with Silva. I just hope he doesn’t get overconfident and cocky. Silva and Cote will clash on October 25, 2008 at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

Check out this podcast with the MasK, Punkass, and SkySkrape.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has officially announced the full fight card for UFC 87: Seek and Destroy. Headlining the card will be UFC welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St. Pierre defending his title against top contender Jon Fitch.

UFC 87: Seek and Destroy

Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch
Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta
Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring
Demian Maia vs. Jason MacDonald
Manny Gamburyan vs. Rob Emerson

Preliminary Bouts:

Cheick Kongo vs. Dan Evensen
Andre Gusmao vs. Jon Jones
Steve Bruno vs. Chris Wilson
Tamdan McCrory vs. Luke Cummo
Ben Saunders vs. Ryan Thomas

UFC 87: Seek and Destroy is scheduled for Saturday, April 9, 2008 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In a recent interview at Sherdog.com, IFL veteran Claude Patrick discussed being attacked following Freedom Fight in Gatineau, Quebec.

According to the report at Sherdog, Patrick, Pete Rodley, and others were cornered on the room’s eighth-floor patios and attacked by a group of men wielding tasers.

“All I know is that I walked into my friend Pete Rodley’s room to say goodnight and thanks for the show, and next thing I woke up in the hospital,” Patrick told Sherdog.com Monday. “I’m assuming I got tased from behind. They said I got hit with a stun gun or a taser and that’s all she wrote.”

“Dude, I was hoping you were calling me to tell me what happened,” Patrick joked. “They kept me in an induced coma for 24 hours and I just got up today. Actually, I thought today was Sunday.”

TKO Xtreme sends its thoughts out to the victims of Saturday’s attacks.

According to the Ottawa Sun (actually, the link is from cfrb).

A mixed martial arts fighter remains in a coma after a swarming at a Gatineau hotel room.

Gatineau Police tell the Ottawa Sun three men were Tasered, beaten with bottles, kicked and punched when they were confronted by a group of up to 10 men early Sunday morning in an apparent robbery attempt.

The Sun quotes police as saying the victims were two fighters and a promoter from Saturday’s Freedom Fight mixed martial arts event at the Robert Guertin Arena.

CTV Ottawa says the two other victims were treated and released from hospital.

A number of women in the room at the time of the incident were not injured.

UPDATE: So far, we know that Claude Patrick and Pete Rodley were two of the victims. Claude was in a coma for 24 hours and he’s doing better (thank God). So much for Canada being so safe. I hope they find these scumbags.

Cote weighing in at UFC 67. Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has officially announced that UFC 90 will be headlined by a middleweight title fight between Anderson “The Spider” Silva and Canadian-middleweight Patrick “The Predator” Cote.

In a press release at UFC.com, Silva said, “It’s an honor to be fighting Patrick Cote in the first UFC event ever in Chicago, I’m excited to take on Cote, but I am taking him very seriously; he is a dangerous striker and he likes to stand and trade with his opponents. That’s the kind of fight fans like to see, and that’s definitely the fight we’re going to give them Oct. 25.”

Cote said, “Everybody that fought Anderson Silva was scared of him; I’m not scared of him one bit. It’s gonna take him 10 straight punches to take me down - I only need one punch to take him down. I’m Patrick Cote, I win against grapplers and I knock strikers out. I can’t wait to go to Chicago and take the belt home to Montreal.”

UFC 90: Silva vs. Cote is scheduled for Saturday, October 25, 2008 at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

Pat Healy def. Ryan Ford – Submission (Armbar)
Donald Sanchez def. Jason Maxwell – Submission (Triangle)
Ron Faircloth def. Levi Avera – Submission (Rear Naked Choke)
Ben Henderson def. Ricardo Tirloni – Submission (Guillotine)
Aron Lofton def. Dwayne Lewis – KO
Ryan Machan def. Ryan Heck – TKO
Jay Whitford def. Jason Kuchera – Submission (Armbar)
Gavin Neil def. Evan Sanguin – TKO
Mike Sorensen def. Lemont Davis – TKO
Elliot Duff def. Brandon Curts – TKO
Jason Zorthian def. Jesse Clarke – Unanimous Decision

The Fight Network is reporting that Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has purchased the Internation Fight League.

“We are very proud of what we did here in just over two years, building a brand from nothing into something that people in the industry and outside of the industry actually noticed, and I enjoyed working with so many different people and helped tell some great stories,” added Favorito. “ At the end of the day sometimes the finances don’t make sense, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.”

The report states that the buyout will mirror that of Zuffa’s purchase of the World Fighting Alliance and PRIDE Championship Fighting. Zuffa will take control of the rights to current IFL contracts along with the promotion’s video library.

So far fans have seen IFL veterans Rory Markham, Reese Andy, Brad Blackburn, and Andre Gusmao secure spots on UFC cards while IFL video footage was used to hype up Andy’s co-main event bout with Brandon “The Truth” Vera.

The purchase now opens up the opportunity for Zuffa to send big names such as Chris Horodecki, Vladimir Matyushenko, Roy Nelson, Wagnney Fabiano, Deividas Taurosevicius, Mike Ciesnolevicz, Ryan Schultz, Benji Radach, Jay Hieron to either the UFC or WEC.

Main Card:

Ryan Ford (169.5) vs. Pat Healy (170)
Donald Sanchez (155) vs. Jason Maxwell (154.5)
Ron Faircloth (185) vs. Levi Avera (177.5)
Ricardo Tirloni (155) vs. Ben Henderson (156.5)
Dwayne Lewis (202.5) vs. Aron Lofton (209)
Preliminary Bouts:

Ryan Machan (153) vs. Ryan Heck (155)
Lemont Davis (167.5) vs. Mike Sorensen (170)
Jay Whiteford (212.5) vs. Jason Kuchera (208.5)
Gavin Neil (155) vs. Evan Sanguin (154.5)
Brandon Curts (185.5) vs. Elliot Duff (185)
Jason Zorthian (170.5) vs. Jesse Clarke (168.5)

Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

In a recent interview, UFC welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St. Pierre hyped up his upcoming bout with Jon Fitch by saying, “I believe that everything Jon Fitch is good at, I’m better than he is, he’s good all around, but I’m better in every single aspect of the game.”

St. Pierre and Fitch have been on a collision course over the better part of a year after Fitch solidified himself as the top contender with an impressive 8-0 UFC record. Fitch has scored victories over Brock Larson, Josh Burkman, Thiago Alves, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, Luigi Fioravanti, Roan Carneiro, Diego Sanchez, and Chris Wilson.

St. Pierre went on to say:

“He’s undefeated in UFC and he brings a lot more problems to the table than my other opponents,” he said of Fitch. “He’s not an old school fighter.

“He’s in the new breed of mixed martial arts fighters. He’s not coming from only one solid background. He’s a good wrestler, he’s good standing up and he’s a black belt in jiu jitsu, which means he’s very good at submission on the ground. That means I’m going to have to use a lot more tools than I have in the past.”

St. Pierre and Fitch will clash August 9, 2008 at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.