(“You’ve got him right where you want him, Patrick!”)
Since dropping his third straight fight to Tom Lawlor at UFC 121 and subsequently getting axed from the UFC, former middleweight title challenger (that still just seems weird to write) Patrick Cote has been quietly putting together wins under various Canadian promotions, and in fact has scored three straight over UFC veterans Kalib Starnes, Todd Brown, and Crafton Wallace.
Meanwhile, back here on Earth, Tim Sylvia has undergone one of the most obnoxious and plain bizarre campaigns to get back in the UFC that we have ever seen. He’s enlisted the help of the UG, he’s Twitter-bombed Dana White, and he’s even released a training video that was hands down the funniest two minutes this world has seen since that Leprechaun was spotted in Mobile, Alabama.
One thing Sylvia hasn’t been doing, however, is scoring convincing wins over decent opponents. And according to Cote, Sylvia, and any other ex-UFC fighters attempting to beg their way back into the promotion, need to simply “shut up and fight.”
It all started when Cote out the following Tweet amidst all of Sylvia’s UFC pandering.
“@patrick_cote: Dear Tim Sylvia, shut the hell up, win fights and stop begging, its f*cking anoying !!!”
Sylvia, believe it or not, did not take to kindly to Cote’s advice, and responded with the follwing trifecta of Tweets:
“win a belt then u can talk to me. Or at least try cause your English sucks so bad.” [Irony.]
“look man I don’t know y u even said anything about me I thought we got along but for some that only got a shot cause of gsp.” [*Facepalm*]
“@patrick_cote should not talk shit I have done more in and for this sport then u ever will. I got some French war guns for sale.”
Jesus tap-dancing Christ, Tim. First off, Cote and GSP are not part of the same training camp. Secondly, French war guns? WTF is that?! And are you seriously trying to win a war of the words by insulting someone’s grasp of the English language while simultaneously using y, u, and ’cause in the same poorly formed sentence? Foot, meet mouth.
Anyway, Cote was recently interviewed by MMAWeekly, where he was given more than 150 characters to defend his position. Needless to say, his side of the argument makes a hell of a lot more sense than Fatty Boom-Boom’s:
Maybe that was a little bit out of control because that wasn’t a personal attack to Tim Sylvia, but that was just begging to have a chance to go back to the UFC, for me, it’s just a shame. You can’t beg the big organizations like that.
The only thing you have to do is shut your mouth, win fights, and prove you deserve to be back in the big show by winning fights and by your performance.
Cote was even complimentary of Sylvia’s accomplishments at one point.
You’ve been a champion in this organization; you know how things work. You’re not going to go anywhere by begging like that. I was just annoyed about begging, a lot of the begging, and I said loud what a lot of people was thinking. I have nothing against Sylvia. He’s been a great champion. He did a lot in the sport. He did a lot in the UFC. I hope he’s going to be back in the UFC. That’s not the point. The point was just about the begging thing.
It’s hard to disagree with Cote here, especially given how Dana White has shut down Tim Sylvia’s hopes before they ever grew legs. Wins, not words, earn you a place in the sport’s highest organization. Unless you are James Toney of course, in which case it’s neither.
Currently, Cote is scheduled to square off against Shooto, IFL, and KOTC veteran Gustavo Machado in Brazil this weekend, a win that could very easily earn him a call back to the UFC. Sylvia, on the other hand, has not fought since his snorefest victory over Andreas Kraniotakes at the abysmal Pro Elite 2: Big Guns event last November.
So what say you, Potato Nation? Should Sylvia squash this pipe dream altogether, or, you know, actually pick up a couple more wins before he takes to the Internet for support once more?
-J. Jones