Australian welterweight fighter Kyle Noke has been chosen to coach against Canadian fighter Patrick Cote in The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Australia vs Canada series which will feature welterweight prospects competing for TUF honours.
UFC officials announced the series with the two set to face off at the end of the season.
Born in Dubbo, New South Wales, Kyle Noke started off his career competing locally on Spartan, XFC and Warriors Realm while training at the Intergrated Martial Arts gym under the Dan Higgins in Brisbane, Queensland. Locally scored victories against the likes of Matt Te Paa, Luke Pezutti, George Sotiropoulos and Brian Ebersole before moving to North America where he based himself at Greg Jackson’s gym in Albuquerque, New Mexico and training with some of the best fighters in the world.
He earned his way into the UFC through the eleventh season of The Ultimate Fighter as he became Chuck Liddell’s first-round pick. Noke was knocked out in the quarter finals by Kris McCray but was given an opportunity to compete in the UFC and has gone 4-2 since which includes wins over Chris Camozzi and most recently a 45-second TKO over Charlie Brenneman.
Canadian coach Patrick Cote was pulled from obscurity to face Tito Ortiz in the main event of UFC 50. On short notice, Cote did well against Ortiz but lost a unanimous decision. Since then Cote has has been in and out of the UFC and has a record of 6-8 inside the octagon which included a shot at Anderson Silva’s middleweight crown back in 2008. Cote has notable wins over Scott Smith, Ricardo Almeida, and most recently obtained a unanimous decision win over Bobby Voekler.
Welterweight fighters interested in participating in the show will get the opportunity to tryout in September with more information and registration forms set to be available from July 1. Tryouts will occur in both Sydney and Toronto.
The season will air in Australia on FX and is expected to debut in the early part of 2014.
