Cote swears his abilities are beyond what we know them to be and believes his training with the Canadian National wrestling team will give him the edge he needs to sprawl and brawl against Almeida. Cote could be right, but Almeida's takedowns are actually very decent. He's got more than just a double or single, a nice deep penetration step, and has unspectacular if reliable set-up punch combinations for his takedowns.

Ultimately, this is what I suspect the fight will come down to. It's simplistic analysis, but the truth is hard to ignore: both fighters have strong talent in one dimension of the game and defensive talents in the others. The question will be whose is defensive enough to allow room for their own offense?