Oct-24-2008
Patrick Cote – MMA’s ‘Rudy’ Gets His Shot
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PRIDE: BOX SET - EVENT 1-5 DVD
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By Thomas Gerbasi
When Patrick Cote takes a break from training for the biggest fight of his life, he sometimes reflects on where he’s been over the last few years in the UFC, and how he took the road less traveled to his Saturday title shot against middleweight champion Anderson Silva. It’s been some ride.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he smiles. “You can almost do the ‘Rudy’ story with me, but part two. I came from very far, but I always believed in myself, and to have a title fight after my rough start in the UFC is a nice story. I’m so thankful for the UFC. They saw something in me and even if I had a rough fight with them, they kept me, and I’ve proved that they were right. It’s the goal of everyone who does MMA, to be the UFC world champion, and I have this opportunity right now.”
In the popular movie, which was based on a true story, Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, was an undersized, unheralded aspiring football player who managed to walk-on at Notre Dame’s practice squad, eventually making it into a game against Georgia Tech, where he sacked the quarterback and was carried off the field. Patrick Cote is not that big of an underdog when he takes on the man considered to be the best pound for pound fighter in the world, but the oddsmakers haven’t exactly embraced the thought of Cote dethroning ‘The Spider’ at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois this weekend.
“That’s part of the game and that’s normal,” said Cote of his underdog status. “Anderson Silva is the best fighter in the world, pound for pound, so for sure I’m the underdog. But that’s good for my friends and everyone who believes in me. They’ll put money on me and be a lot richer after this fight.”
Cote laughs, and it’s not a nervous chuckle, but a confident one. He knows what he brings to the Octagon, and for the uninformed, that’s a five fight winning streak (four of those wins coming in the UFC), concussive power, a granite chin (fight stats show that he has never been knocked down), and a level of confidence that he didn’t have in 2006, when he first had an opportunity to face Silva in a title fight.
In November of 2006, Cote was one win away from earning a shot at the middleweight crown as his prize for taking the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter. Standing in his way was jiu-jitsu standout Travis Lutter, who made short of the Canadian with a first round submission win. Cote, devastated by the loss, was now 0-4 in the UFC. Not only was he not going to get the title shot, but his career in the Octagon was in jeopardy. Changes needed to be made, and fast.
“I always believed in myself, but I had some bad luck in the past,” said Cote, 14-4 overall, and 9-0 in Canada. “Against (Joe) Doerksen, I was winning the fight but I made a rookie mistake. Against (Chris) Leben I lost by split decision, and it was very, very close. But after I lost that fight to Lutter, I did change a couple things in my training. Now I train in Boston at Sityodtong and I still train with my team here in Montreal, BTT Canada, so I have a good combination, and since I’ve had this combination, I’m undefeated.”
Cote’s next UFC fight turned out to be his first victory, as he outpointed Scott Smith at UFC 67 in February of 2007. That night should have been his title shot, but as he looks back now, he knows he wouldn’t have been ready for Silva a year and a half ago.
“Not at all,” he said. “I think that was a good thing for me, what happened at The Ultimate Fighter show final. I wanted to win, I didn’t have a good night against Travis Lutter, but now I’m back where I was supposed to be, and I’m ten times better, and ten times more experienced. So now I’m ready to go, and right now I’m very confident to win.”
A TKO of Jason Day in Canada continued to boost his confidence, and when Cote returned to the UFC in August of 2007, he began a tear that saw him stop Kendall Grove and Drew McFedries and then score a decision win over Ricardo Almeida that thrust him into the title fight against one of the most feared men in the business – at least feared by everyone but Cote.
“I’m not intimidated by him, I’m not scared of him,” he said. “This guy has been beat before and he can be beat again. I took the fight with Tito Ortiz on four days notice and I thought he was the most intimidating guy in the MMA industry. So right now, I ain’t scared of anybody. My mind is my number one skill, I’ve trained hard, and nobody’s about to get into my head. I’ll go there and I’ll fight Anderson Silva like anybody else.”
That’s not to say he doesn’t respect the Brazilian bomber, and the feeling has been mutual in the lead-up to the UFC 90 main event. But business is business, and all the cordial feelings will go out the door when the bell rings.
“I do this sport to be number one, to be the champion of the world, so he’s the champion right now and it’s all about business,” said Cote. “Actually, I’m a big fan of Anderson Silva, but the thing is, he’s the champion right now, so that’s a problem. I have to go in there beat him, take his belt, and put him away. I will still be a fan of him after that, but I’ll have the belt.”
Again, Cote displays a confidence, but not arrogance, in discussing the fight. He knows where he’s been and what he’s had to overcome to get here. It’s not about being scared of fighting the best fighter in the world (“The fight will happen anyway, so I’m not going to waste any energy on that,” he laughs), it’s about putting together everything he’s learned over the years and condensing it into one time frame of 25 minutes or less. Upsets happen all the time in this sport; Cote wants to be the next one to silence the ‘experts’.
As for life after Saturday night, Cote’s got it all figured out.
“I’ll be in Cancun the day after that for a week,” he said. “One of my friends is getting married on the 29th.”
So no huge media tours or club hopping if he wins?
“I do this because I love to fight,” he said. “I don’t do this to be famous and I don’t run after the celebrity thing.”
Watch the live feed of the UFC 90 weigh-in HERE on Friday, October 24th at 4pm CT.
To see the weigh-in, Microsoft’s SILVERLIGHT plug-in is required. To download the plug-in, click HERE
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