On Wednesday I watched Patrick Cote, who will fight Anderson Silva for the middleweight championship at UFC 90, working on his ground game with trainer Fabio Holanda:
Cote is mostly known as a stand-up striker, while Silva has a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu, but both Cote and Holanda told me they're not afraid to take the fight to the ground.
"I don't care," Cote said. "I did very well against Ricardo Almeida, who is 10 times better on the ground than Anderson Silva. And, you know, it's not a jiu jitsu fight. It's an MMA fight. ... If the fight goes on the ground, I'll go for sure."
Cote earned his title shot by beating Almeida in a split decision at UFC 86. Almeida may be better than Silva at pure jiu jitsu, but as a well-rounded MMA fighter, Silva will be an incredibly difficult test for Cote on Saturday night.
