At UFC 148, iconic San Jose fighter Cung Le will face off against Patrick Cote, who is making his return to the UFC to fill the hole left by Rich Franklin. Franklin was originally slated to be Le's opponent before moving to the main event of UFC 147 to take on Wanderlei Silva.
Tim Burke at Bloody Elbow reports that Cote recently talked to Sportsnet about the upcoming fight with Le. Here is his opinion about the San Jose superstar:
"Le is a super good striker, a very powerful kicker with some weird angles," Cote said. "I’m going to have my hands full with him but I’m really, really confident I’m going to be able to put him away especially coming from a big knockout from Wanderlei Silva."
Cote is hoping to redeem himself after his last, disappointing run with the UFC that ended in a string of losses.
"I want to erase the last fight I did against Tom Lawlor in the UFC management's head. That was a pretty bad fight, I take the blame for that. I feel like I'm reborn in the UFC, have to come back and show I deserve to be there. I improved much more my game, especially my wrestling, now I'm ready to be back and show the world my new skills. I'm not going to bring back the old Cote, I'm going to bring back a new Cote. You're going to see a lot of improvement, but still a lot of power in my hands, and a solid chin."
Cote hopes his road to redemption will run through Cung Le.
For more on mixed martial arts in general, check out everything we have to offer over at MMA Fighting and Bloody Elbow.