Another knee surgery, this time to repair an injured MCL, will sideline UFC middleweight Patrick Cote through March of next year, according to a Monday report from MMA Weekly:

Cote on Monday informed MMAWeekly.com that, despite his best efforts, his “MCL is busted.” He will remain out of commission until next year.

“My ACL is good, but my MCL is busted,” he stated. “So I have to go under surgery again.”

Cote said that he will go in for surgery on Wednesday, and that a likely return to the Octagon is a long ways off.

“Not before February or March, for sure.”

Cote signed a new four-fight contract with the UFC this summer. He recently went in to the doctor to have his knee checked, anticipating an approval to return to training for a hopeful return this fall. Instead, he received a metaphorical kick in the head instead of being able to start actually delivering them again for real.

“It’s like the bad luck is still against me, but what can I do?” he told MMAWeekly, still in good spirits. “I’ll be back. I’m going to heal very, very well and after that my knee will be 100-percent. It sucks, but hey.”

If the surgery goes well and his rehab schedule stays on track, Cote will be able to start a conditioning program within a couple of weeks, and then return to fight training sometime around October.

“I can’t wait to be back,” he said, the yearning evident in his voice.

Cote (13-5) suffered a technical-knockout loss to middleweight champion Anderson Silva last October in his most-recent bout, as he was unable to continue fighting after injuring his knee early in the third-round of the contest. “The Predator” had previously won five-straight fights over Scott Smith, Jason Day, Kendall Grove, Drew McFedries, and Ricardo Almeida.

Before his latest setback, Cote had been expected to return to action this fall, possibly as early as September.

Tags: Patrick Cote