Alessio Sakara (R) lands strikes to the back of the head of Patrick Cote (R) – Photo by Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports
A middleweight rematch between UFC fighters Alessio ‘Legionarius’ Sakara (15-10, 1NC) and Patrick ‘The Predator’ Côté (18-8) was announced this Saturday for the upcoming UFC 158 event, but has since been cancelled by ‘Legionarius’ on Sunday.
Sakara made a post on Facebook explaining that he was advised by his physician to stop fighting for the near future over kidney issues. According to ‘Legionarius’ he won’t even be allowed to train for the next three months which would give him no time to train for Côté.
UFC 158 is expected to take place on March 16 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The two fighters fought last month at UFC 154 on November 17 in Montreal, with the match ending at 1:26 of the first due to an apparent TKO stoppage by Sakara. Sakara in fact had been landing several hammer fists to the back of ‘The Predator’s’ head and was disqualified resulting in a win for Côté.
Whenever Sakara does return to the Octagon he faces a three fight losing streak and will need a victory if he hopes to keep his job with the UFC. Besides the loss last month Sakara also suffered defeats at the hands of Brian Stann at UFC on FUEL TV 2 and by decision versus Chris Weidman.