With much of the pre-UFC 113 hype understandably surrounding Lyoto Machida vs. “Shogun” Rua II, and of course, Paul Daley’s “fraggle” dig at Josh Koscheck, the fact that Patrick Cote is about to fight for the first time since October, 2008, has kind of got lost in the shuffle. After all, although his UFC 90 bout with Anderson Silva would eventually be categorized as another WTF? performance by the middleweight champ, Cote surprised many by making it into the third round. And even then, it was a knee injury, and not Silva’s fists that brought the bout to an end.
So, what makes Cote’s return even that much more sweet, is that he’s taking on another aggressive slugger in Alan Belcher. Really, as long as Cote doesn’t show up in the Octagon Saturday night with too much cage rust, this tilt has all the makings for FOTN. Speaking to MMA Weekly recently, Cote had this to say about his game plan for Saturday:
“Everybody knows my style. I like to punch, I like to throw my feet, and I’m a striker,” Cote said. “I’m not afraid to go on the ground and wrestle with this guy, but for sure if he’s ready to stay on his feet, I’m going to stay on my feet.”
Yes, dudes like Kendall Grove and Drew McFedries can testify as to how Cote evidently enjoys punching, and Belcher has always demonstrated that first and foremost, he’s a Muay Thai kind of guy. Sounds like a win-win for us fans no? To bet on UFC 113 head here.