The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback – Episode 8

Results

You know how we do it. A recap of Serra/Spratt from last week starts us off. No one had much to say about this fight. Let’s move on to Shonie Carter, shall we?

Benedict Carter

Shonie wants to train with Team No Love because none of their welterweights are left in the competition. His teammates are now his competition. Team No Love isn’t very receptive to Shonie training with them but as Mr. International puts it on numerous occasions, “I don’t give a f*ck.”

Serra feels betrayed by Shonie’s actions. He feels the team got him to the semis and he’s absolutely right. They supported him, helped him through training, and coached him versus Rich Clementi, all things Shonie need to win. Serra says they made a pact to stick together as Team Mojo and doesn’t like this new transition to Team Shonie.

Team Mojo confronts Shonie when they arrive at the training center. They ask him why he is there and not with his team and Shonie says it was just a one-time thing. Shonie was very polite to his teammates, very much unlike his actions in the van when he was running his mouth about Team Shonie.

Both teams are at home now and Shonie is taking is beauty sleep. Team No Love tells Team Mojo about the things that Shonie said in the van. They told them he didn’t care about the team and that it is no longer a team event. Blue and gray mean nothing to him now. Shonie is right in that it isn’t really a team event, but he needed to show a little more loyalty to the team that got him where he is today. Team Mojo doesn’t take this very well and proclaim that they are done with Shonie.

Trainers: Old and New

Patrick Cote will be fighting tonight and is not only friends with current trainer Geroges St. Pierre but also training partners. St. Pierre says he believes Cote will win as long as he puts the pressure on his opponent. His opponent is Jorge Rivera, who is trained outside the show by Mark DellaGrotte. He feels Jorge should fight from a southpaw stance and try to kickbox Cote.

Dana introduces a new coach, light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell. He’s only there for a week and Dana hopes they can learn more from Chuck than they did from Rich, whom Dana heard some guys thought was a dick. Serra is happier with Chuck than Rich but that was to be a given. Chuck is shown giving haymaker advice and everyone seems more receptive of Chuck than they were with Rich.

Fighter History

Patrick Cote was the Canadian light heavyweight champion and believes that his is the best UFC fighter with the worst record. That UFC record is 0-3 and began at UFC 50 when he took on Tito Ortiz in the main event on four days notice as a replacement for Guy Metzger. Cote was able to catch Ortiz with a punch that dropped the Huntington Beach Bad Boy to a knee but the rest of the fight consisted of Cote eating Ortiz’s elbows. Ortiz won a unanimous decision but Dana was impressed with Cote’s willingness to step up so he gave him another shot at UFC 52 against Joe Doerksen. This was Cote’s first fight at 185 lbs and was doing a good job of controlling the fight. He was winning the contest until he was caught in a rear naked choke and had to tap out. Cote’s final fight in the UFC was at Ultimate Fight Night 1 against Chris Leben. The fight was close and Cote still thinks he won, but the judges gave a split decision to Chris Leben.

Jorge Rivera is an experienced UFC fighter with five contests in the octagon. His first fight came at UFC 44 when he took on David “The Crow” Loiseau. Rivera won the fight by unanimous decision but nearly got the KO as time expired in the third round. Rivera’s next fight was against Lee Murray at UFC 46. Murray was rumored to have beaten up Tito Ortiz at a nightclub and had an intimidating reputation. Jorge wanted to take the fight to the ground to negate Murray’s brawling and did just that. Unfortunately, Rivera got caught in an armbar and tapped out in less than two minutes. Rich Franklin was Jorge’s next opponent and they squared off at UFC 50. It was a good fight with each guy taking a round, but with 30 seconds left in the third round, Franklin spun an armbar on Jorge and forced the tapout.

Dana said Jorge was out of the UFC at this point but three out of four wins with other promotions earned him another run with the UFC. Jorge fought Dennis Hallman at UFC 55 and looked impressive in getting the unanimous decision. Rivera went on to fight Chris Leben at Ultimate Fight Night 3 but got knocked out in the first round. Rivera said Leben got lucky. Maybe if Jorge had his hands up he wouldn’t have been caught flush on the chin in the first round. Tell that story to somebody else.

Fight Day

Patrick Cote says he wants to be on Rivera’s face. I don’t know what that means in Canada but that sounds like another show for another channel. Cote wants to control the cage and keep the fight standing up. He feels that Jorge wants the takedown. Jorge says that for some strange reason he feels he will knock Cote out with a high kick.

Jorge Rivera vs. Patrick Cote – Round 1

Rivera starts off with a leg kick and they quickly find themselves in the clinch. Rivera takes Cote down but Cote moves into full guard. Rivera gets up while Cote is laying on his back, keeping Rivera away with his feet. Rivera gets back down on Cote without landing anything heavy. Cote did a good job of covering up there.

Cote scoots back against the cage. Rivera gets up again and they are in the same situation as before. Rivera is standing while Cote is keeping him at bay on his back with his feet in the air. Cote lands a major kick to the face from this position that puts Rivera down. Cote quickly gets on top of Rivera and throws hammerfists but Rivera is still defending himself. Rivera pulls guard and Cote punches Jorge while Jorge goes for submissions. Rivera ties Cote’s hands up to close out the round.

Cote won that round with his momentum changing kick to the face. Rivera looks tired.

Round 2

They start out firing again. Cote counters Rivera’s kicks with left and right hooks. Cote stuffs a weak takedown attempt from Jorge and falls down on him for top mount position. Rivera is laying on the mat doing very little of anything as his corner yells for him to get moving. Rivera looks exhausted but explodes out of the mount and gets a guillotine choke on Cote. Cote rolls out of it and gets back on top of Rivera. More of nothing goes on here until referee Herb Dean stands them up.

Rivera and Cote get in a clinch and they are leaning on the fence with one minute left in the round. Cote gets the takedown and Rivera’s corner implores him to get moving. Rivera is out of gas and that just isn’t going to happen. Cote lands some small shots from the top mount as the round ends.

The winner by unanimous decision is Patrick Cote.

Post Fight

Rivera said Cote’s kick in the first round was a flash knockdown. Rivera never looked the same after that kick so it must have had more lasting damage than Jorge is willing to admit. Cote said he noticed Rivera was tired and tried to take advantage of that. Cote is happy to not only get the win, but also be healthy going into the semi-finals. Rivera doesn’t remember much of the second round and is disappointed with the loss. He said he fights to support his family, not because he likes to do it. Now he has to find another way to put food on the table.

Team Mojo really put it on Team No Love. Mojo won seven of the eight fights with Travis Lutter being the only No Love fighter to advance to the semis. Even Ken Shamrock could have done better than that. Well, maybe.

Next Week

Matt Hughes drops in on the guys and gets under Matt Serra’s skin. I’m glad we always get to know how Matt Serra feels about everything and everyone. Also, all the semi-final matchups are determined and the first welterweight finalist will be decided.

As always, head to the forum to chat about the episode or this season of Ultimate Fighter.