TKO Xtreme

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.