The French-Canadian born cage-fighter known as Patrick "The Predator" Cote, who holds a career record of 13-5 overall and is 4-5 in the UFC, has been quoted on SB Nation as saying that he is looking to make a return to action in April of next year.
Well, in the words of the late great Jimmy Cannon: Nobody asked me, but...this writer's reply—in the form of a question—to monsieur Cote would be "who cares?"
Honestly, and with all patriotism aside, my countryman from Montreal, Quebec, may have been great in the subpar world of the Canadian promotion known as TKO, but in regards to his time spent in the UFC, he has never once even slightly impressed me.
When he was a cast member on the reality show The Ultimate Fighter, his exhibition matches put me in a state of frustration.
They showcased Cote as a young wannabe UFC cage-fighter with aspirations of becoming somewhat of a power-punching knockout artist, yet, sadly, it also showed to the world his obvious deficiencies.
Specifically speaking, it continues to be the opinion of this writer, from studying Cote, that he loads up too much and tries much too hard to land that big haymaker.
Most times he delivers them from the wrong distance, and the wrong angle, so he may as well throw water balloons; his punches were not only inaccurate, they were also lacking subtance, and firepower.
He propelled one at the champion-Silva—during thier fight—which "The Spider" shrugged-off as if it was an annoying insect, about to alight on his left shoulder.
To be fair, he did show flashes of good technique with nice counter-punch stoppages over Drew McFedries and Kendall Grove, yet both these men are "far and away" from being top-tier middleweights.
In his match with Chris Lebin—another "tomato can," by the way—they resembled two young male children pinning each other against a playground fence engaged in a game of "who can stomp on whose toes the most."
Cote’s fight with Ricardo Almeda at UFC 86 in July of 2008 was no better; it's one that is surely to go down in MMA history as one of the worst UFC contests ever witnessed—a boring snooze-fest, to say the least.
To add insult to injury, the winner was promised a title shot against the reigning and defending 185-pound cage-fighting superstar Anderson Silva, so is it any wonder that the champion Brazilian "Spider" lacked enthusiasm leading into and also during the fight?
A cat toying with a mouse would undoubtedly have been the best way to describe the match on the night in question, or "another lamb to the slaughter," as they say.
Cote supposedly blew his knee out in the third round of this title fight at UFC 90 last October, but it is this writer's opinion that he should never had been in with such a foe in the first place.
Understandably, there does exist a smattering of fans out there who truly believe that Cote should get credit for making it to the third round, which may justified.
But what does that say about Cote concerning his possibilities of becoming a future threat to the middleweight division?
Is having a strong, iron-clad jaw, or chin, a good enough reason to come back to the UFC and continue to either get injured, beat up, or worse?
I think not.
All I can say—in my poor-man's French—is, “Monsieur Cote, bonne chance, mon ami!”





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