This Saturday, one of the most anticipated fights of all time will take place, as Chael Sonnen will once again fight Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title.Many are expecting this fight to be just as fantastic as the first one, no matter who end…
This Saturday, one of the most anticipated fights of all time will take place, as Chael Sonnen will once again fight Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title.
Many are expecting this fight to be just as fantastic as the first one, no matter who ends up the victor in the end. However, the main event can’t be a show stealer if everyone expects it to be awesome.
The entire card is stacked from top to bottom. On the FX prelims, expect Melvin Guillard and Fabricio Camoes to be a great back-and-forth fight, and expect Gleison Tibau against Khabib Nurmagomedov to contend for Fight of the Night.
However, the fight that will steal the show will be Cung Le against Patrick Cote. Le is coming off a second round TKO loss to Wanderlei Silva, and Cote is making his return to the Octagon after winning four straight outside of the UFC.
Le is 7-2 in his career, and both of his losses have come by (T)KO—once to Wandy and once to Scott Smith while in Strikeforce.
Cote has several more fights, and he is 17-7 in his career. In addition to that, his only loss by any form of (T)KO was the knee injury he suffered in the Anderson Silva fight.
Both of these fighters are strikers first, with solid chins to back up their striking. Expect this one to go into the third round. It will either be finished in the third, or it will go all 15 minutes.
Then after that, we’ll get to see Forrest Griffin face Tito Ortiz, and the fight we’re all waiting for: Anderson Silva against Chael Sonnen.
UFC 148 is going to be one of the best cards in UFC history, and Cote and Le will have a hand in that.
Tim McTiernan is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. For the latest news on everything MMA, follow him on Twitter @TimMcTiernan.
(Cote has never been the same since the night he had a run-in with Rousimar Palhares’ doppelganger.)
When all is said and done for the human race, there will be three rivalries that stand above them all in the footnotes of history: America vs. The Brits, Germany vs. Everybody, and now, Canada vs. Vietnam. Though there hasn’t been a feud between the two on the level of the Hatfields and McCoys yet, things are about to change. Why, you ask? Well, it has just been announced that Canada’s own Patrick Cote will be returning to the octagon to face Vietnamese-born San Shou expert Cung Le at UFC 148. The war that will inevitably result from this pairing will easily go down as the most significant clash Canada has gotten into since the Hans Island dispute with Denmark in the early 80’s.
Since exiting the promotion, Cote has strung together four straight wins, including a most recent first round knockout of Shooto/IFL vet Gustavo Machado, a win that we speculated could earn him a trip back to the UFC. And damn it, it feels good to be right for once.
Check out a video of Cote’s most recent performance after the jump.
(Cote has never been the same since the night he had a run-in with Rousimar Palhares’ doppelganger.)
When all is said and done for the human race, there will be three rivalries that stand above them all in the footnotes of history: America vs. The Brits, Germany vs. Everybody, and now, Canada vs. Vietnam. Though there hasn’t been a feud between the two on the level of the Hatfields and McCoys yet, things are about to change. Why, you ask? Well, it has just been announced that Canada’s own Patrick Cote will be returning to the octagon to face Vietnamese-born San Shou expert Cung Le at UFC 148. The war that will inevitably result from this pairing will easily go down as the most significant clash Canada has gotten into since the Hans Island dispute with Denmark in the early 80′s.
Since exiting the promotion, Cote has strung together four straight wins, including a most recent first round knockout of Shooto/IFL vet Gustavo Machado, a win that we speculated could earn him a trip back to the UFC. And damn it, it feels good to be right for once.
Check out a video of Cote’s most recent performance below.
Cung Le has not fought since coming up short against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139, in a fight that saw him dominate the first round with his patented kicks, only to end up on the wrong end of a controversial TKO stoppage in the second.
This is definitely an intriguing fight for both players involved. On one hand, Cote presents a lot of the same problems for Le that Scott Smith did, being a hard-hitting, yet slightly one-dimensional striker who will more than likely keep things standing. Unlike Smith, however, Cote’s chin is made of titanium, and he sure as hell won’t be attacking Le with the kind reckless abandon/stupidity that Smith did in the pair’s second encounter. Cote also has much better footwork, and will hopefully be able to avoid the spinning attacks of Le, which are responsible for more cases of sudden onset diarrhea than Lay’s WOW Chips. Given Le’s susceptibility to the KO (both his 2 losses have come that way), this could make for an incredibly entertaining, back and forth brawl that ends in devastating fashion.
UFC 148 goes down on July 7th, 2012 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The game of MMA musical chairs continues.Earlier on Wednesday, it was announced that Rich Franklin would be stepping up to replace Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 147 against Wanderlei Silva. This announcement came at a bit of a shock as Rich Fr…
Earlier on Wednesday, it was announced that Rich Franklin would be stepping up to replace Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 147 against Wanderlei Silva. This announcement came at a bit of a shock as Rich Franklin was already scheduled to face Cung Le at UFC 148.
Le hinted earlier on Twitter that word of his new opponent would be released Wednesday night. It has been announced by MMAJunkie that Le’s new opponent is one-time UFC middleweight title challenger Patrick Côté, though nothing has been officially signed.
Côté is currently riding a four-fight winning streak since his departure and is an 11-fight veteran in the UFC. He holds notable wins over Ricardo Almeida and Scott Smith. He was also unsuccessful in two title fights while in the promotion.
Cung Le is a former Strikeforce middleweight champion and a Sanshou standout. He made his UFC debut at UFC 139 against Wanderlei Silva. He suffered a TKO loss when Silva was able to batter his face and body with knees and punches. He also posted a gruesome photo on Twitter afterwards of his broken nose. Cung Le hopes to pick up his first UFC victory in his fight against Côté.
UFC 148 takes place in Las Vegas on July 7 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Skip to the 19:55 mark of the video for the KO. Props: IronForgesIron.com
Imagine you wake up from a devistating spinning backfist knockout. You’re already pretty confused as it is, and now you’re finding out that you lost your fight by…unanimous decision? That’s how it feels to be Daniel Acacio, who met Pete Spratt at Amazon Forest Combat 2 last night.
Before anyone else points it out, you’re right: this technically isn’t a knockout. Spratt, who is no stranger to winning Knockout of the Day honors, landed the spinning backfist that caught Acacio right on the chin as the horn sounded for the end of the fight. So technically, this isn’t a knockout, and the fight went to the judges’ scorecards, who all saw the fight in Spratt’s favor. So yes, this is technically “Unanimous Decision of the Day”- because I’m sure it matters to Acacio’s remaining brain cells and all.
Skip to the 19:55 mark of the video for the KO. Props: IronForgesIron.com
Imagine you wake up from a devistating spinning backfist knockout. You’re already pretty confused as it is, and now you’re finding out that you lost your fight by…unanimous decision? That’s how it feels to be Daniel Acacio, who met Pete Spratt at Amazon Forest Combat 2 last night.
Before anyone else points it out, you’re right: this technically isn’t a knockout. Spratt, who is no stranger to winning Knockout of the Day honors, landed the spinning backfist that caught Acacio right on the chin as the horn sounded for the end of the fight. So technically, this isn’t a knockout, and the fight went to the judges’ scorecards, who all saw the fight in Spratt’s favor. So yes, this is technically “Unanimous Decision of the Day”- because I’m sure it matters to Acacio’s remaining brain cells and all.
(“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.
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 !!!”
Join us after the jump for the war of words.
(“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.
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?
(*Hello darkness, my old friend*…just to be clear, we’re referring to the darkness that accompanies being choked unconscious, not Jay Silva.)
To say that Kendall Grove has seen some ups and downs in his MMA career since winning the third season of The Ultimate Fighter would be an understatement. After defeating Ed Herman by ultra close unanimous decision to earn the coveted glass plaque, Grove would tack up two more submission wins over Chris Price and Alan Belcher. It seemed as if the lanky middleweight had the world in the palm of his hand, destined to follow Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans as the new breed of MMA stars to make their name off the show.
And then it all fell apart.
Grove would drop his next two via form of KO to Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, and though he would follow up the pair of losses with victories over Evan Tanner (R.I.P.) and Jason Day, we would never see Grove rise above the rank of gatekeeper in his UFC run. He would go 2-4 in his next six, and would be ousted from the UFC after dropping a UD to Tim Boetsch at UFC 130 in Boetsch’s middleweight debut.
After scoring a quick submission win and evening the score with Joe Riggs, Grove out grappled Japanese sensation Ikuhisa Minowa at a Pro Elite event last month that we here at CP gave an official score of “meh.” Would last night’s SCC 4 card house “Da Spyda’s” first three fight win streak since 2007?
(*Hello darkness, my old friend*…just to be clear, we’re referring to the darkness that accompanies being choked unconscious, not Jay Silva.)
To say that Kendall Grove has seen some ups and downs in his MMA career since winning the third season of The Ultimate Fighter would be an understatement. After defeating Ed Herman by ultra close unanimous decision to earn the coveted glass plaque, Grove would tack up two more submission wins over Chris Price and Alan Belcher. It seemed as if the lanky middleweight had the world in the palm of his hand, destined to follow Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans as the new breed of MMA stars to make their name off the show.
And then it all fell apart.
Grove would drop his next two via form of KO to Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, and though he would follow up the pair of losses with victories over Evan Tanner (R.I.P.) and Jason Day, we would never see Grove rise above the rank of gatekeeper in his UFC run. He would go 2-4 in his next six, and would be ousted from the UFC after dropping a UD to Tim Boetsch at UFC 130 in Boetsch’s middleweight debut.
After scoring a quick submission win and evening the score with Joe Riggs, Grove out grappled Japanese sensation Ikuhisa Minowa at a Pro Elite event last month that we here at CP gave an official score of “meh.” Would last night’s SCC 4 card house “Da Spyda’s” first three fight win streak since 2007?
Nope. Unfortunately, Grove would suffer the SECOND technical submission loss of his career when he was choked out by fellow UFC veteran Jay Silva via second round arm-triangle. Yeah, that Jay Silva. Grove has faced Ricardo Almeida and Demian Maia and managed to make it out alive, so props are due to Jay. With the win, Silva improves to 8-5, and Grove falls to 14-10.
In the night’s co-main event, other fellow UFC veterans John Gunderson and Justin Buchholz engaged in a back and forth affair that saw Gunderson lock up a kimura in the third round to claim the promotion’s inaugural lightweight title. TUF 11 veteran Jamie Yager was also in action, and improved to 6-2 with a unanimous decision victory over Danny Davis Jr.
Full results from SCC 4 are below.
-Jay Silva def. Kendall Grove via Submission (Arm-Triangle Choke) at 1:52 of Round 2.
-John Gunderson def. Justin Buchholz via submission (Kimura)at 2:34 of Round 3.
-Jamie Yager def. Danny Davis Jr. via unanimous decision.
-Paulo Goncalves Silva def. Dominique Robinson via unanimous decision.
-Brandon Bender def. Marlin Weikel via submission (Triangle Choke) at 2:30 of Round 3.
-Walter Harris def. Anthony Hamilton via KO at 1:15 of Round 1.
-Jimmy Jones def. Joao Victor via submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 3:49 of Round 3.
This Saturday, one of the most anticipated fights of all time will take place, as Chael Sonnen will once again fight Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title.
