Controversy struck again at UFC 154 when Patrick Cote was declared the winner due to Alessio Sakara being disqualified. What looked like a knockout victory for Sakara, was quickly turned down by the ref as he determined that the knockout was due to illegal strikes to the back of Cote’s head. It was an action-packed back and forth battle until the fight ended in controversy, so the only obvious solution, is to have a rematch.
I don’t think the decision to disqualify Sakara was as obvious as Joe Rogan made it out to be. After replaying the supposed illegal strikes numerous times, only two strikes actually landed to the back of the head of Cote. All the other strikes landed to the ear, just behind the ear, or the neck of Cote. Nobody supported the decision to disqualify Erick Silva when two of his strikes landed to the back of Carlo Prater’s head, yet now that Sakara is in the same situation, that few have stated their disagreement. Even in the slow motion reply, Joe Rogan was calling strikes “illegal”, when they clearly weren’t. What confuses me most, is how Rogan immediately defended Erick Silva is his disqualification, yet he was completely on board with Dan Miragliotta’s decision to disqualify Sakara.
Regardless of the official decision, I was still successful in correctly predicting the breakdown of how this fight would play out; Sakara having the faster, more technical striking that would give Cote problems. Because of his fight with Brian Stann, Sakara’s chin was underestimated, and he was able to come back from a few big strikes to take back control of the fight. Every MMA fan should acknowledge Cote’s iron jaw and respectable punching power, but to be blunt, his striking is overrated and isn’t on Sakara’s technical striking level. It’s seems uncanny, but of the twenty three more credible internet predictions I’ve read, only four had Sakara winning, myself included. Then again, the same can be said for me correctly predicting the outcome of the Sam Stout / John Makdessi fight.
Maybe now the predictions and betting odds will shift and seem a little more even in the rematch, assuming there will be a rematch. I’ll still be taking Sakara to beat Cote next time around, and I foresee many more people agreeing with me. Not only will Sakara win the rematch, he will finish him again, only this time, it will be under less controversial means.
Written by : Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli
@FightFreek