Report: Yushin Okami breaks hand, out of Silva fight; Cote next in line
July 19, 2008 by Adam Morgan
MMA Rated has the scoop:
MMARated.com has learned that UFC middleweight fighter Yushin Okami has recently suffered a broken hand and thus a potential title fight pitting Okami and Anderson Silva, once thought to be slated for September or October, has now been put on hold.
We’ve also learned that if Silva leaves the Octagon tomorrow night without any major injuries there are plans to book Patrick Cote as his next opponent, possibly this Fall as well.
This is an unfortunate turn of events if it’s true as I was sort of looking forward to seeing Yushin Okami step into the cage against Anderson Silva. Do I think Okami stands much of a chance? Not particularly but I think he stands more of a chance than Patrick Cote at the current moment. Okami is a good wrestler who is extremely strong for 185 lbs. and he bullies people in the cage. He would be a good test for Silva even though they’ve fought once before and until the illegal kick from Silva, Okami was getting worked in the standup game. But what’s done is done and I was somewhat excited to see if Okami could utilize his great wrestling and strength to subdue the current pound for pound king.
Now what we’re left with is like sloppy seconds. Patrick Cote is a decent fighter with good hands, good power, and a serviceable BJJ game but he is nowhere near Silva’s level. I’d rather see them give Dan Henderson another crack at Silva before I chunked out $45 bucks to see Cote get demolished. Yes, I realize that Cote has “earned” his way to this spot by beating who the UFC has put in front of him, but as far as competitive and meaningful fights go, this is not a matchup that fits the bill.
Poor Cote. Even if he runs away from Silva the entire like he did against Almeida, he will eventually get caught. Or God Bless him, may he rest in piece(s) if he decides to stand and trade with him
Why not have him fight at 205 again. Put him up against Wanderlei. Yes I know he says he doesnt want to fight at 205 b/c of Machida. But money talks…..
This is a shame. I recently purchased a five-event set on DVD of Rumble on the Rock. It has the Silva/Okami bout on it. I had seen it before on-line but the quality is so much better on TV. Yushin was clearly rocked by a looping kick by Anderson while he was on his back. It was too bad he couldn’t continue and was ultimatly awarded the victory due the illegal strike.
A rematch between those two would be awesome should the card’s fall into place again. If Patrick is next in line, so be it. Anderson has to fight someone. It’ll be worth the money for sure. Striker vs. Striker isn’t a bad match-up these days. If he were to fight Hendo, I believe we would see the same result maybe just not as quick. I wanted to see Almeida vs. Silva but that’s most likley not going to happen anytime soon.
Can’t wait to see what all unfold’s this evening. Cheers!!!
Sucks for Okami, was looking forward to seeing that rematch. Hope he has a speedy recovery.
Cote doesn’t stand a chance but anything is possible like GSP/ Serra, I’m a HUGE Silva fan and a Cote matchup is probaly going to happen..Someone says a
Anderson vs Wanderlei matchup, I doubt that cause Anderson doesn’t want to fight at 205 and plus they are old Chute Boxe friends and he would rather drop back down to his natural weight then do that..It would be fun to watch..
Anderson needs to stay at 205, b/c noone wants to see him fight Cote, and very few want to see him against Okami. However Anderson vs. Vanderlei, Chuck, Rampage, Shogun, Thiago, Sok, Forrest, etc.
Also, if he loses to those guys; eh, no big deal… but if he gets beat by Cote that’ll really damage his aura. Forget 185; he’s cleaned it out.
i think its great that anderson wants to respect his friendship with machida and stay out of the 205 division but at the end of the day, anderson is not fighting for machida, he’s fighting for the fans and i think that the fans deserve to see him going up against the best of the best at 205… if at some point him and machida’s paths cross for the championship that will be unfortunate but i think the odds of it happening are somehwat rare and is not worth having anderson stay at 185 where theres barely any interesting fights left
i think the worry for spider is that if he solidifies himself at 205 with a couple of fights against big names that he will leapfrog machida for a title shot which means that machida will have to eventually go through spider to get his belt and that neither of them, being friends and training partners, want to face each other
isnt friendship beautiful?
All my wildest dreams coming true… Cote is my favorite fighter? I say Anderson should go to welterweight and shallack everyone there. Then after the winner of Penn/GSP emerges, they face Silva for the dominator title. Just retire the middleweight title so Silva can move onto better things!
Look I know that they are matching GSP against Penn soon, assuming that GSP takes out Fitch, which he will. Baby steps I guess. After he takes out Penn, he should jump right up to 185 and fight Silva. Of course after Silva fights Cote and whoops his ass.
I think there’s others that have done more than Cote. Thales Leites comes to mind, or the winner of Bisping and Leben, personally I am picking Bisping in that fight. Bisping vs Silva would be interesting. Do it in England and it would be a huge fight. 205 is where the blockbuster fights are. I’m sure if the money and the fights are right Anderson will move up again. I also wouldn’t be so sure that Machida is getting past Thiago, we’ll see.
I like Cote, but I had Almeida winning their fight, though by the slimmest of margins. i had no problem with the decision going to Cote, but this now makes for a very unappealing fight.
Yeah, anderson vs bisping would be good and it would be intersting to see anderson fight the winner of penn and pierre. All these fighters have fought at weights higher and lower than where they are at and thats what makes these fighters amazing to add and cut weight like they do and still be dominant. I wish i could do this sh#t!
I have nothing to say that hasn’t been said yet.
Other than that the “sloppy seconds” metaphor forced me to believe for a second that Adam was writing about Cote’s serviceable BJ game, not his BJJ game.
Cote will be served up like a pinata for Anderson to do a Muy Tai clinic on.
As Cote crumples to the ground, Anderson will turn and survey the remnants of the MW division.
Okami, heal up, you’re next. And after that, by God, could it be Bisping?
Then Henderson, Franklin and Marquardt fight each other to determine who is the real #2 and that guy fight AS again.
And that’s how you clear out a division. The next territory is LHW, where the challenges are more severe: Chuck and Wandy (won’t fight Machida).
Griffin would be an big underdog against Silva. And he’s the LHW Champ. That could be a great fight though. Forrest is the most “game” fighter in mma. He really does fight out of a tree given where he came from.
If none of these guys can stop the Spider you know he’s going to have to fight Fedor eventually. If that fight happened it would be huge.
I would love to see Cung Le vs Anderson Silva.lets make it happen Dana White!