The 5 best UFC fighters from Canada

#4 Patrick Cote

Patrick Cote became one of the UFC's most reliable action fighters

It was 2004 when Cote was signed by the UFC, at the time as a chubby 205-lber. He was pegged to face Marvin Eastman in his UFC debut but was thrown into much deeper water when he agreed to fight Tito Ortiz on late notice in the main event of UFC 50. Cote lost to Ortiz by decision but put up enough of a fight to be kept on by the UFC as a 185lber, although he ended up losing his next two fights as well and was subsequently released.

2006’s Ultimate Fighter: The Comeback series gave ‘The Predator’ a path to return to the Octagon, and he made it to the finals, where he was submitted by Travis Lutter. It would be the last time Cote would lose in the UFC for some time, as he ripped off a four-fight win streak that earned him a Middleweight title shot against Anderson Silva in October 2008.

Despite putting up a good fight, Cote blew his knee out in the third round, ending his title challenge. That was the highest he made it up the card, but he was able to stick around for almost another decade as a reliable action fighter, winning a further six UFC fights and successfully coaching a Canadian Ultimate Fighter team in 2014 too. His 2017 retirement was an emotional one as he’d become one of the most popular Canadian fighters of all time.