Hey, Patrick Cote, Have I Got a Deal for You!

Talk about having a real flashback moment! I think I just had one.

Most of the time I find that I look at the sport of MMA, and particularly the UFC, somewhat differently from the young writers that inhabit the keyboards of the Bleacher Report. This time I found myself thinking, "Why didn't one of these sharp youngsters think of this?"

What I am rattling on about is something of a deja vu moment involving one of my favorite Canadian fighters Patrick Cote.

Back in 2004 (since I am old I should say two double ought four, I guess), when Tito Ortiz's opponent dropped out just weeks before their fight, the UFC powers that be approached the then 24 year old Predator, Patrick Cote, asking him if he would be willing to take the fight on such short notice. To paraphrase, his answer I believe was, "Hell yes!"

Fans of Cote will doubtlessly remember how he tore his MCL ligament in his right knee during the early fourth round of the fight in Chicago, IL, UFC 90, while fighting against "the Spider" Anderson Silva. Thoughts on the fight certainly differ.

Dana White downplayed it (much after the fight had ended), as being "boring" and not one of Anderson's best showings.

Naturally, I dispute that fact feeling that Patrick lasted longer than Silva's many other opponents, probably because Silva's spider senses let him know how dangerous Patrick's strikes could be to him.

Silva danced around and kept a respectful distance, which Dana later criticized as "clowning" like Silva's idol boxer Roy Jones Jr. does in his bouts. I think Silva played it safe due to the knowledge that Patrick was a force to be reckoned with early on during the fight.

Since Dana was not in the cage fighting the Predator, how would he know that raised- hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck feeling a combatant gets when facing sure danger? Anderson is not a dumb man, so his feelings about the fight mean more to me than Dana's speculations on it made with the advantage of hindsight.

Patrick was also a threat to Tito in the "UFC 50: War of 04" when he caught the Huntington Beach Bad Boy and almost knocked him out. Patrick learned to box in the Canadian army and added karate, kick boxing, and BJJ after turning to MMA as his career. He is multi-talented and beat many of his opponents before finally having surgery on an old injury he re-injured while fighting with Silva.

So it is deja vu all over again with Mark Coleman pulling out of the fight with so little time left to find a replacement. The odd fact is that both Tito and Patrick are eager to return to action in the octagon after each having recovered from a surgery.

In Tito's case, he has been inactive longer than Patrick, having just settled his feud with Dana and been welcomed back to the UFC (with a kiss, if you can imagine that).

Being a friend on Facebook, I have seen Patrick posting how much he would love to fight again soon. As far as I know, he has nothing coming up that would interfere with a quick training period for UFC 106 to meet Tito for a rematch. As before, Cote would be fighting above his usual weight class of 185, but since he walks around at 205 and met Tito at that weight before, I bet he would go for it.

So why am I the one thinking of this solution when all the B/R hot shots out there love to play fantasy match-ups and I loathe it?

Maybe Grandma Dee is not yet irrelevant to the MMA Community on Bleacher Report.