UFC 148: Cung Le vs Patrick Cote

Cung Le (7-2) vs Patrick Cote (17-7)

I have to start this by saying it was originally supposed to be Cung Le vs Rich Franklin which would have been an amazing fight between two aging but talented strikers.  Unfortunately Vitor Belfort got injured (for the millionth time) so Rich fought Wanderlei Silva in a rematch instead.  But oh well, that is the past so lets get on to the review.

Cung Le is amazing.  If you have never seen any of his older Sanshou fights when he was in his prime (he is 40 now and barely fights due to doing movies) do yourself a favor and check them out on youtube.  Now days, due to his extremely inactive fighting career he tends to show up and not be in the shape to really push the pace past a couple of rounds (but claims he has corrected that this time).  The interesting thing about Le, even at this point in his career, is that you have to train for this guy.  No matter who you are, you have to study his game and fight just to counter his skill set.  You can't just go into a fight with Le like it's a fight with some traditional MMA striker (sloppy boxing and low kicks) and expect to come out on top.  Even Franklin went to another Country to specifically train for Le with Sanshou fighters when he was scheduled to fight him.

Patrick Cote hasn't been in the UFC in a while now (nearly 2 years) and left before on a 3 fight losing streak.  I haven't seen him fight in a long time so it's hard to say if he will bring anything new to the table.  He is basically a boxer who can take some damage (at least he used to be able to).

I expect this fight to be something like the Cung Le vs Scott Smith fights.  Le will do some flashy kicks, side kick Cote into the cage and look pretty good.  Now the question is, which Smith fight will it be like?  He dominated Smith both times but in the first match started gassing out and got clipped with a punch and KO'd.  In the second Smith fight he fought a little more reserved and fought at his pace and worked Smith over with side kicks to the body.  I think the fight will go something like one of those fights, just depending on Le's shape and how he fights Cote.