With Yushin Okami out of his title shot due to a broken hand, Dana White has said that the next MW title shot is going to Patrick Cote. While I don't feel like he deserves a title shot (not having beaten any top competition and all), he is pretty much the UFC's only one left at the moment.
Cote started off his UFC career with a 0-4 record. That is usually your ticket out of the UFC, but he was then placed on the comeback season of "The Ultimate Fighter". He wound up losing to Travis Lutter (who subsequently couldn't make weight for the biggest fight of his life) in the finale.
Cote rebounded and has won his last five fights in a row. Those victims included Ricardo Almeida, Drew McFedries, Kendall Grove, Jason Day, and Scott Smith. But the question remains, does he really deserve a shot at Anderson Silva? While I can name at least six Middleweights that can take out Cote, they all have one thing or another that keeps them out of a title shot:
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Dan Henderson - The man is a legend in the sport of MMA. Came into the UFC with two PRIDE titles. Flaw? Currently 0-2 in the UFC and already lost to Anderson.
Nate Marquardt - Excellent MW fighter. Lost his last fight in what some say was a "controversial" decision. Flaw? Besides the last loss, already lost to Anderson.
Chris Leben - Great fighter with a lot of heart. Already beat Cote once. Flaw? Already lost to Anderson and is scheduled to fight Bisping already.
Michael Bisping - As much as I hate his accent and attitude, he looks good at MW. Flaw? Just got into the division and needs to prove himself more.
Yushin Okami - While he is a boring fighter, he has the style down to a science. He would LnP Cote out of a decision win. Flaw? Broken hand, going to be out for a bit.
Rich Franklin - The man is 8-2 in the UFC. That's all that really needs to be said. Flaw? Lost to Anderson TWICE and is scheduled to take on Matt Hamill already.
As you can see, the UFC is in quite a jam and Cote is the only one who can bail them out. Do I think he has a remote chance against Anderson? Sure, he has the same puncher's chance that everyone has against him. That is about all he has though. Good luck Patrick.
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about 1 month ago
Good take on things... Somebody thinks Cote deserves an ass whooping so I guess he is about to get it...
about 1 month ago
I feel pretty bad for him. The MW division isn't the division to be in if you want to be champ right now.
about 1 month ago
Cote will get destroyed by Anderson. Normally you'd say he has a puncher's chance, especially with his power, but I'm not even sure he has that. It's incredibly hard to connect with a good shot against Anderson and I don't think I've ever even seen him rocked. The Spider would win by TKO or KO in the first couple rounds. Cote's the best they got right now though, with Okami out. I'm kind of dissapointed that Franklin and Henderson are fighting on the same card but not against each other -- as a side note. They don't seem to want to push Henderson back to a rematch with Silva very fast -- which would make a lot of sense to me. At least both of them are in pretty intruiging fights against Hamill and Palhares.
from about 1 month ago
I agree with you and I would like to see Dan and Rich fight each other. I do hope that since Patrick trains with Georges that he is progressing like Rush has. After he stepped in and saved rhe war of 04 against Tito and proved that he has a heart as big as Canada, I would really like to see him pull off the next beg upset. What a predicament! I loke Anderson, but Patrick needs this more.
about 1 month ago
They do need to work on the middleweight division! At this point, Cote even being somewhat seriously mentioned as a title shot guy is disappointing.
Anderson will murder him!
Anderson took care of Henderson, but I would like to se eHendo get anothe crack at him a some point! Remember...Henderson did win the first round in that fight.
Bisping will eventually get a crack at him. Perhaps he needs a couple more fights, but he has looked great since moving to middleweight and he might indeed be Silvas' only real competition at that weight!!!!
from about 1 month ago
I would rather see Patrick fight Bisping before being thrown at Silva.
about 1 month ago
I agree totally. I'd say Bisping is more deserving since he looked great in his 2 middle weight fights, but like you said he needs to prove himself(more MW fights, and with top MW contenders- not Mcarthy and Day). I do think that Marquart was robbed in that decision win. Good luck to Franklin moving up to Light Heavy, and as for as Cote.... he's going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
from about 1 month ago
Your words with Bisping don't make sense. Bisping isn't more 'deserving' -- he's beat two nobodies. Maybe you see him as more 'prepared' or as a better challenge. He still has to beat Leben and then a real top contender to get a shot. Like the winner of Hendo/Palhares vs winner of Bisping/Leben might get a title shot after Cote... and maybe after Okami too. That'd make a lot of sense.
from about 1 month ago
yes I agree, I said "I would say he's more deserving..., but..." Moving down to MW at 15-1 if he had beat 2 top contenders then he'd be the best pick to me. as you said I definitely see him as a better challenge, if it wasn't for Leben's DUI bs maybe we'd be seeing that fight now.
about 1 month ago
Great article man. I do agree with you. You are forgetting two other middleweight though. Thales Leites (14-1-0) and Martin "Hitman" Kampmann (17-2). don't forget that Cote did do well agianst strikers so the UFC thinks that will make for a good fight.
from about 1 month ago
yea he is a good striker, but he did lose to Leben by decision in what was pretty much a boxing match. However Leben didn't fair too well at all. Hopefully it'll be a good fight though, it'd be nice to see Silva pushed.
about 1 month ago
Rousimar Palhares...Get familiar.
about 1 month ago
Most Def Devin! If he beats Henderson which I think he can then he will be up there... I can see a Michael Bisping vs Palhares number 1 contender match up...
from about 1 month ago
That would really be raw!
about 1 month ago
Palhares has the best chance to beat silva out of anybody in the division. It's just a matter of him working his way up the ranks to get there.
Cote and bisping are sitting ducks for silva. They bring nothing more to the table than james irvin did.
I don't care to see okami get dominated and knocked out in another matchup either.
from about 1 month ago
I see your point. But I definitely think Bisping has more to offer than Irvin in the way of a challenge. He's a tough dude and looks like he's going to be a solid top ten middleweight in the future -- I may be getting ahead of myself, though.
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