Cote speaks on injury, Hendo

On Thursday, MMAWeekly caught up with former middleweight contender Patrick Cote to get an update on his injured knee and get his thoughts about last Saturday's UFC 100. Prior to the centennial show, the 29-year-old Montreal resident wanted to fight Michael Bisping if he emerged victorious against DanHenderson. Obviously, that's changed.

MMAWeekly: How's the knee?

Cote: The knee's doing well. I'm going to see my doctor next week, just to check if everything's okay and to have the okay to push more. Next week I'll be fixed for sure.

MMAWeekly: What are you doing right now in terms of training?

Cote: Right now I'm just doing conditioning under supervision. I don't do any fight training yet. I have to be careful of my knee. Next week I'm going to have another MRI and we'll see if everything is okay for hard training.

MMAWeekly: Has it been difficult for you to take this much time off of fight training?

Cote: For sure. That's my life. It's my job. It's hard to see everybody in the gym sparring and training hard for a fight and I can't. It sucks.

MMAWeekly: A lot of video games in your spare time?

Cote: Yeah, video games and I play a lot of golf. I don't do a lot because I want my knee to be 100 percent.

MMAWeekly: You did say prior to UFC 100 that you'd like to face Michael Bisping if he defeated Dan Henderson. That didn't happen -- what did you think about Bisping's performance?

Cote: I think he had a stupid game plan. I was there; I did the French pay per view so I was cageside. He was always turning into his right hand, and Dan Henderson made his career with his overhand right. So it was just a question of time until Bisping got caught. I found that a little bit strange. And Bisping looked very nervous; he looked tight. So I wasn't surprised at all. After the first round, I said in the second round it will be done.

MMAWeekly: Do you still want to face him?

Cote: Yeah, I want everybody. I don't care. But I don't think Bisping needs a fighter like me to fight right now. Right now, I want a big fight that's going to put me on top of the middleweight division.

MMAWeekly: You initially said you wanted to return in October. Do you think that's a realistic assessment right now?

Cote: That's the plan, but it's out of my hands now. I did everything the doctor told me to do, so next week, I'll be more able to say when I'll be able to come back. My goal for two months now, I tell everybody I want to be back in November for UFC 104 in Los Angeles, but if I'm not ready, I'll be back later than that.

MMAWeekly: You said you wanted to get back to the top of the middleweight division, and it would seem Dan Henderson would be great fight to put you there, given that Anderson Silva is fighting at light heavyweight in August and probably won't be ready by early next year. How would you feel about facing Dan?

Cote: For sure. I respect Dan Henderson very much. I like his style; he's a legend to me. If they gave me this fight, it would be a big honor for me. I think that could be a very, very good fight. We'll be standing in front of each other and banging.

MMAWeekly: How would you approach that fight differently than Bisping? Henderson does have a great overhand right, but he also has top-notch wrestling, which you've struggled with in the past.

Cote: Maybe in the past, that was my weakness, but I think I showed in my fight with Ricardo Almeida that I've improved my wrestling. For sure, if I were to face Dan, I would do a lot of wrestling, but Dan Henderson's a gamer, so I think he would want to fight with me on the feet and try to knock me out. I think he would want to be the first one to try and knock me out.