Ricardo Almeida comes to the cage first–Almeida is a nice story as he had to step away from MMA to deal with his family, including a kid with autism. Now that there’s more money in MMA he can fight and provide for his family, which is definitely cool. For that alone we’ll cut him some slack for his CCR entrance music. Patrick Cote comes to the cage next and there’s few more frightening looking men in the sport. Shout out to our writer Grady Roy here–throw a Habs jersey on Cote and he’ll have Georges Laraque of the Pens whimpering like a little girl. Interesting matchup with Almeida, who is a BJJ beast against Cote, who’s just a tough, tough dude. Almeida a pretty scary looking dude himself. Cote getting the love from the fans. Herb Dean is your ref and we’re ready for some fightin’….

ROUND ONE:

There’s a tough dude–Miguel Torres, WEC bantamweight champion. Cote inside Almeida’s guard and that’s a nasty place to be. Cote worms out of it and runs over to the other side of the cage not wanting any part of the ground game. Cote loading up his *nasty* right hand and runs right into an Almeida bodylock. He bulls Cote up against the cage and tries to take him down which he’s blocking nicely for now. Cote a noticeably bulkier guy, which doesn’t mean much against a BJJ monster but he’s going to be a load to get on the ground. Cote sprawling out of the takedown for a moment, but Almeida gets him to the ground finally. Cote pulls guard but Almeida lands a couple of nasty punches. 1:20 left, Cote eats some big punches and not doing much with his upkicks. Cote’s up against the cage and he wriggles away, presumably to get out of the big puddle of blood that Chris Lytle left on the mat. 20 seconds left and the BJJ stud is showing some nice ground and pound which we didn’t really expect. Cote ate a lot of punches, but as he walks to his corner he looks more mad than hurt. He needs to come up with a ‘plan B’ since it was all Almeida despite the fact that he couldn’t really dominate on the ground. 10-9 Almeida…

ROUND TWO:

Almeida has a torn glove or something–one of “Stitch” Duran’s suplicants enters the ring with a pair of scissors and fixes things. Laura Prepon in the house–more of her, less of Pete Wentz. Cote just misses with an uppercut. Cote has been a little more evasive so far and Almeida squares up to strike with him. Just like that Almeida gets his opponent to the ground–Cote is in trouble for a moment, but he gets out of it and retreats to the other side of the cage. Cote getting thrown off his game somewhat due to the sick BJJ skills of his opponent. He needs to be aggressive but he knows that if he gets *too* aggressive he’s putting himself at risk. Almeida dropping his hands trying to bait Cote into throwing punches wildly. Cote bites, but Almedia better be careful because Cote has one punch KO power in his right hand. Cote misses with a right hook. Tough round to score so far–Almeida avoiding Cote’s punches but has done little on offense. Cote gets a body shot while Almeida keeps looking for a takedown. Leg kick by Cote. Bloodthirsty meth addicts boo, not realizing that if you get wild against a BJJ black belt its not going to work out well for you. Less than a minute left with the fighters against the cage doing nothing, but now Almieda tries for the takedown. The round ends, but not before Cote clocks him with a punch right before the horn. Tough round to score, but Cote did more on offense. He didn’t do much damage, but he fought more of his fight…10-9 Cote, fight even on the SAVSCI card 19-19

THIRD ROUND:

Cote loading up his right hand which could end this fight in a matter of seconds. Almeida gets a bodylock and tries for the takedown but nothing doing. Cote gets away and starts dancing and moving on his feet . Cote backing Almeida up, but its hard to see how much is ‘baiting’ and how much is really Cote’s striking. Cote with a nasty leg kick. Cote faking punches and Almeida backing up, but nothing really landing. Alemeida like so many other MMA fighters could greatly benefit from some time in a boxing gym. It looks like he’s never seen a combination before. Another wicked leg kick by Cote. Bloodthirsty meth addicts boo, presumably wanting Cote to jump on the ground with a BJJ blackbelt. Two minutes left, not much going on in the round but Cote controlling tempo. Cote lands another leg kick. Almeida needs to get the fight to the ground but hard to trade punches with Cote. Cote with a left hook and an overhand right. Punches don’t hurt Almeida too bad, but he feels them and is backing up. Cote completely dominating tempo and just as we say that the BJJ specialist takes it to the ground with 15 seconds left. Almeida missed his submission, Cote ended up on top and landed a couple of punches as the round ended. Not a lot of action in round three, but Cote controlled tempo and landed a few effective strikes. Cote gets round 3 on the SAVSCI scorecard, he takes the fight 29-28. We’ll wait for the official decision…

29-28 Cote, 29-28 Almeida, 29-28 Cote

PATRICK COTE WINS BY SPLIT DECISION

Cote wins a tough split decision. Almeida gives one of the most unconvincing post fight hugs you’ll ever see. Renzo Gracie gives Cote a more sincere greeting. Fans aren’t happy, Cote does the lame “I’m sorry my fight was so boring” bit in an attempt to placate the bloodthirsty meth addicts.