Author: Matt Erickson [matt-erickson]

MONTREAL – Patrick Cote took a fight against Cung Le on four weeks’ notice, but unlike some who step up in the UFC, he was given no guarantees he’d be back.

“If I had a bad performance, they wouldn’t give me another fight, for sure,” Cote told MMAjunkie.com.

Cote lost, but was the first to take Le the distance. And with a full training camp, he said he’s better prepared for his next opponent, Alessio Sakara.

The mantra is probably about as old as fighting itself: “I’m not looking past (Insert Opponent Here).”

There probably was no pre-fight news conference where Goliath said, “I’m not looking past David – I need to concentrate on this one fight in front of me and then think about what’s next.” But point being, fighters love to say it, even if they don’t mean it.

And then there’s Marcin Held. Even if he’s not looking past his next opponent, at least he’s honest enough to say what he really wants is something down the road.

Dana White probably hit the nail right on the head, and it’s something he’s far too used to.

“It never ends,” the UFC president said in a Wednesday post on Twitter announcing the latest injury to blindside the promotion a short time before a main event: Shane Carwin is injured and out of his fight against Roy Nelson.

Carwin and Nelson were scheduled to meet in the main event of the TUF 16 Finale a month from now in Las Vegas.

The UFC returns to movie theaters on Saturday for UFC 154.

As the promotion has done for several past shows, UFC 154 will be available on the big screen through Fathom Events. And in conjunction, more than 20 UFC fighters will attend screenings around the country to watch the card with fans and participate in meet-and-greets.

UFC 154 takes place at Montreal’s Bell Centre and features a main event welterweight title unification bout between champion Georges St-Pierre and interim titleholder Carlos Condit.

Rafael dos Anjos has gotta be lovin’ him some United States these days.

The Brazilian moved to the States from Rio de Janeiro in February and is 2-0 since the move. On Saturday, dos Anjos meets Mark Bocek at UFC 154 looking for three straight.

Maybe his two-fight win streak since moving to the U.S. is just coincidence. But dos Anjos doesn’t think so.

A day after losing his opponent for UFC on FOX 5, Dennis Siver has his replacement.

Nam Phan will step in for the injured Eddie Yagin to meet Siver at next month’s event. Phan-Siver is expected to be part of the preliminary card. UFC officials on Wednesday announced the switch.

UFC on FOX 5 takes place Dec. 8 at KeyArena in Seattle and features a main event lightweight title fight between champion Benson Henderson and top contender Nate Diaz.