The Fight Network is reporting that Patrick Cote has been forced to pull out of the UFC 83 card in Montreal, Canada because of a sprained knee that he suffered while falling on some ice. Cote was rumored to be fighting Alan Belcher in the UFC’s first foray into Canada, but according to Cote’s Manager Stephane Patry, “we were not going to take that fight anyway [with Belcher]” and that, “it wouldn’t make sense”. The reason behind it was because both Cote and Patry felt that a win over Belcher would do nothing to move Cote up the Middleweight ladder and a loss would do too much damage to his status.
Although their reasoning makes sense, a fight is a fight and the UFC awards great performances no matter who you are fighting. We’re not sure if there was another underlying reason that Cote and Patry didn’t want to take the fight against Belcher, but we’ll never know as Cote won’t be able to train for a month to a month and a half.
The UFC has already found a replacement for Patrick Cote at UFC 83. Jason Day (15-5-0) will be replacing Cote who in a strange twist of events, was the last person to beat Day prior to Day’s four fight winning streak. Cote was forced to pull out of a fight that he never actually signed because of a knee sprain he suffered while falling on some ice. Day’s four fight winning streak includes victories over former UFC fighters David Loiseau and Jonathan Goulet.Day makes a lot of sense as a replacement since he is another Canadian fighter on the first UFC card up in Canada, but he still isn’t Patrick Cote. UFC 83 sold out in about a minute once the remaining general public tickets were put on sale the other day, so Canadian fans are hyped as can be for their first UFC event but it would’ve been better with the streaking Patrick Cote on the card who has had two exciting victories over Kendall Grove and Drew McFedries.
