Canadian middleweight Patrick Cote will retain his victory from UFC 154, despite protests from Alessio Sakara and his camp.
During their match, Sakara was on the verge of victory after landing hard elbows to the side of Cote’s head, but the blows quickly turned illegal as Cote sank to the Octagon mat with Sakara hitting him in the back of the skull with “12-to-6” hammerfists.
According to French-Canadian newsgroup La Presse, Quebec’s governing board for combat sports refused to hear an appeal from American Top Team, cementing Cote’s disqualification win from November 17th:
However, [the board] refused to consider the application on the [grounds] that the decision of an arbitrator can not be reversed. “The decision of the arbitrator is final and without appeal,” a spokesman of the Board, Joyce Tremblay, confirmed on Friday.
With the Board’s decision, Cote now stands at 5-8 after various runs in the UFC, dating all the way back to an October 2004 bout against Tito Ortiz at UFC 50.
However, “The Predator” is currently 5-1 in his last six career fights, with the lone loss coming at the hands of former Strikeforce middleweight champion and widely-known action star, Cung Le.
For Sakara, the situation is more dire.
A disqualification for “Legionarius” puts him at the dreaded 0-3 slide in the UFC, which typically results in a pink slip from the promotion.
Sakara has claimed in post-fight interviews and follow-up quotes that he wasn’t warned of the illegal blows by referee Dan Miragliotta, who let the bout play out until Cote was no longer able to defend himself.
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