By Dwight Wakabayashi
In the second of our two-part series on Canadians at Saturday’s UFC 158, here’s a look at the last three to compete on the card outside of the main event.
Patrick Cote
Longtime Canadian middleweight Patrick Cote has decided to move down a weight class and will make his welterweight debut against Strikeforce import Bobby Voelker in the final fight of the preliminary card on Sportsnet. Cote has been a solid performer at 185 pounds, but will have a much better chance to utilize his crushing right hand against fighters more within his reach.
His last fight was a flash war against Alessio Sakara in November that saw the Canadian win by disqualification in one of the biggest referee mishaps the UFC has ever seen. Cote should be able to make the cut easily, and needs to establish himself with a knockout win over Voelker to keep his job in the UFC. A loss here could bounce him out of the promotion, probably for the last time.
Mike Ricci
Another Tristar Gym product making his real debut in the UFC, Ricci is coming off his appearance in the TUF 16 finale where he put in a very lacklustre performance despite what was at stake. Ricci had no answer for Colton Smith’s wrestling and grappling in the finale and his opponent Saturday Colin Fletcher will pose a similar problem for Ricci. Fletcher is also a TUF finalist and both these fighters are looking to get off on the right foot.
Ricci is a very experienced fighter despite this being debut and he will need to draw from that experience to get past Fletcher. Competing in the first fight of Saturday’s main card, Ricci needs more than a win here to prove that he is a relevant fighter in the stacked, lightweight division.
Nick Ring
Canada’s top middleweight gets back into action following a false start on the last Montreal card in November when Ring had to withdraw at the last minute due to illness. Ring missed a very big opportunity in that one as his opponent Costa Philippou has gone on to bigger and better things, beating Tim Boetsch in December to enter the mix with the best in the division.
Ring gets a streaking Chris Camozzi for this main-card match-up, with the winner moving right back up to the cusp of the top 10 in the division. A loss would be a tough blow for the Canadian, and knock him further down in the pecking order than he has ever been.
Part 1 Monday: John Makdessi, Jordan Mein and Antonio Carvalho
Dwight Wakabayashi is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report UFC and regular contributor to Sportsnet.ca’s UFC section. Follow him on Twitter @wakafightermma.