Shonie acquiesces. "It's just a one-time thing," he says. But the point has been made. Although the fighters were broken up in teams, put artificially into camps to train, when they face each other in the Octagon, it's each man for himself.
Matt Serra comments that "the real Shonie is yet to be seen. We're starting to see his true colors here, and I'm not to crazy about it." The image of his loss to Shonie, that highlight reel spinning back fist that knocked Matt out, must surely be swimming at the back of his mind when he says these words. Fighters never forget a loss.
At the fighter meeting, Dana White introduces Chuck Liddell as the resident coach for the week. The fighters seemed more receptive to Chuck than Rich.
Also, the fighters this week, Patrick Cote and Jorge Rivera, seemed to be training with greater intensity than we've seen before, at least for the middleweights.
In reviewing the fighters' backgrounds, Dana White starts off by noting all three of Patrick Cote's losses in his 8-3-0 record came in the UFC. All tough losses, but losses nonetheless. He debuted against Tito Ortiz, as a light heavyweight. In fact, he rocked Tito in the first round of that fight and made an impression by going the full three rounds, only to lose the decision.
"Tito might have won a unanimous decision that night, but Cote proved to us that he was one tough kid," Dana White says. "So we felt that this kid definitely deserved another chance."
Patrick himself puts it this way: "The thing is that I think I'm the best UFC fighter with the worst record." He adds, "I want my picture on this wall," referring to the larger-than-life pictures of UFC champions hanging on the walls of the training center.
"I came here to win this show and fight Rich Franklin," said Patrick. "I want this title."
As for Jorge, Dana saw him winning in the smaller shows so he was given a shot in the UFC. He has a notable win against David Loiseau and a notable loss against Rich Franklin, a fight where Jorge held his own but in the end got submitted with an arm bar. Later, he got knocked out by Chris Leben at UFN 3.
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