Nate Marquardt has been released by the UFC just hours after the former middleweight contender failed to be medically cleared for what would have been his welterweight debut against Rick Story in Sunday’s UFC on Versus 4 main event.
UFC President Dana White announced the news in a video shared on Twitter.
“[Nate Marquardt] failed his medicals. Not only is he out of…the main event on Versus, he will no longer be with the UFC,” White said without adding details on why Marquardt wasn’t cleared.
If the UFC follows through with its plans, Marquardt (31-10-2) ends his UFC career with a 10-4 record, including an unsuccessful challenge of middleweight champ Anderson Silva in 2007 and his most-recent win over Dan Miller at UFC 128 in March.
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wow whats really goin on here?
In the words of Chris Griffin, “Whaaaaaaaat?” I’m glad i don’t live in pittsburg. damn that sucks.
This sucks. I don’t know why exactly this was done, maybe there was something Nate knew about and didn’t disclose, that would be enough for dw. Marquardt’s always been one of my favorite fighters, I hate to see this happen. I would have paid for a ppv with Nate the great vs the greatness himself, GSP.
Could it be that once again he is angry at something else and are looking to take it out on him? “Three Amigos”
Brutal.
Nate VS. Souza ?
Or possibly Dana means: “Nate is done with Zuffa” :(
If nate is done with ufc then strikeforce could possibly sign him and he should be in contention right away for there vacated belt right?
Not likely since Zuffa owns SF.
his bad karma is coming back on him. he never should of let greg jackson grease him up. who has nate beat ever?185 has always had better 185ers out of the ufc, then in their div. no disrespect to the best mw ever.
un”fu*kin”believable. Does anyone else know anything more about this?
If he’s out of the UFC it has to be something serious. Hopefully he wasn’t juicing or soimething.
Not sure but I didn’t think they tested prefight.
Only thing I found was Dana’s comments about Nate getting canned have been removed from his twitter feed. My guess is he must have had something that he should have disclosed earlier but tried to sneak by. Why else would Dana be so pissed?
Only thing I can think of is he could not hit weight. DW gets super p*ssed when fighters do not hit weight. Couple this with Nate possibly lying to Dana by saying he was on target to hit weight and just couldn’t do it while keeping it from Zuffa until last minute notice. This is my conspiracy theory, yours?
^
My experience in wrestling was if a guy had a rash of some sort( like herpes ) then he couldn’t compete. There was a guy trying to make the ultimate fighter and he couldnt compete because of a rash on his head. I’m just speculating that this could be it, especially if he had it for more than a few days and didn’t disclose it, he effectively sabotaged the main event. This could get him cut. Quite a few fighters have missed weight Thiago Alves seems to miss more than hit weight and the worst he got was a ‘last chance’ to make weight or be forced to move up to 185.
Even if you don’t make weight, you can still fight. See Silva vs Lutter for probably the best example of that.
IMO he was probably nowhere near cutting enough weight, Dana got p***** at being left in the dark and as always he made a knee jerk reaction by releasing Nate from his contract.
“People close to the situation” are Tweeting that this isn’t a PED issue and it isn’t a weight issue, which by process of elimination leaves some sort of other health issue, presumably undisclosed by Marqaurdt and/or his handlers.
Fair enough, no reason not to take anyone at their word at this point, but then what else would prompt Dana White to cut one of the more successful 185 fighters in the UFC?
Supposedly Stephan Bonnar has gotten to the botton of this, and he along with Ariel Helwani will be discussing it with DW in some pre-fight bit…
If there’s a blood born pathogen, or virus, you will not be medically cleared, until it is cleared up. Now, that being said, if there’s one of those that cannot be cleared up, as in it’s a permanent bodily fluid transferable issue, you will not ever get medically cleared.
Nate has been in the UFC far too long to be cut for weight or even PEDs. I mean, if the Honchos didn’t kick Sonnen to the curb, then def not Nate. He’s not quite as douchey as Sonnen(imo). So the speculation here would be: What situation would keep you from clearing medical, and have you released from a multiple fight, six figure per year contract? Logic suggests blood borne illness of some sort, or a bone, ligament, or joint injury of some type that would prevent you from fighting.
I think that even DW would have enough sense not to cut some one at Nate’s level for weight, even if he did wait until last minute. These fights will, 95% of the time have a backup or two planned ahead.
I see where you’re going here, but consider this:
Dana White is [in]famous for his temper.
Could be that even a relatively minor [in the big picture] offense could have set DW off and triggered NM’s release from the org, ESPECIALLY when you factor in how this torpedoes a main event the day before…
And once again everything turns to Dana for some reason. Like “yeah, he’s just up to his old Dana White ways”, but no one’s thinking “hmm, maybe the doctor had a good reason for not letting Nate fight and maybe this reason is something Nate could have or should have avoided”.
Either way losing a main event 24 hours before the show doesn’t look too good for the UFC when they are looking to secure a big new TV deal in the US.
Could NM have been released because of unprofessional circumstances, where he has kept some injury secret, still hoping to fight, and not been up front with DW, leaving no time to find a suitable alternative (No disrespect to Charlie B).
I’m sure that’s enough to p*** off DW who has a short fuse at the best of times.
@jcohl
After taking sometime to think about this, I’m pretty sure that Nate “The Great” Marquardt won’t compete in MMA again. If he was cut than DW would of said he was cut, but he didn’t. He said Nate will no longer be with the UFC. Not only did they cut him, but they’re done with him. :(
I couldn’t see the UFC getting rid of Nate if he had an injury or disease that would heal or could be cured. The only way I could see the UFC doing this is if Nate was unable to compete in the sport ever again, do to either an injury or a disease that’s permanent or incurable.
The only way I could see him compete again is if I’m wrong or if he has an incurable disease that ends up getting cured. By like finding a cure or somehow getting the body strong enough to heal itself.
Besides that, the only way I could see the UFC getting rid of Nate is if he did something really bad in his life or towards the UFC. I’m not sure what it would take for the UFC to be done with you, but it must be pretty bad or something bad that was going on for a long period of time. If it’s not any of the stuff I mentioned than what else could it be?
Whatever it may be I still wish Nate “The Great” Marquardt nothing but the best in life and thank him for everything he’s done in and for the sport of MMA. May the next path in his life be a good one, the best one. Take care Nate, stay great! ;-)
Also I don’t see the UFC cutting Nate Marquardt over an issue with PED’s or a problem with cutting weight. That does not make sense why they would cut him over that.
I always thought Nate was one of the most classy guys in MMA so him getting canned is surprising to me. My guess is he was struggling with the weight and tried a diuretic to cut the rest and got caught or simple told Dana that he got in over his head with the weight cut and just couldn’t do it.
I Don’t think DW would get rid of him just over a problem with cutting weight. It doesn’t make sense and if it does not make sense it’s not true.
well i saw a video of Nate at 170.8 and he looked terrific and sounded terrific so my weight theory is 100 percent wrong.
Just going off of Dana’s tone it sounds like a PED or some type of drug issue but you never know..pretty strange scenario
@Dan82523
Dana didn’t seem upset, he seemed neutral. Also jcohl said it wasn’t a PED or weight issues. I believe that and I don’t think DW would completely get rid of Nate over a reason like that, it doesn’t make sense.
He seemed pissed on the interview on versus
This is from nates twitter. Sounds somewhat positive.
NathanMarquardt I’m sorry to all my fans and the UFC for not passing the medicals for tonight’s fight. I’m heart broken I couldn’t fight, but I will b back
about 3 hours ago
Doesn’t sound like a permanent physical condition but i still wonder if there was deception involved that pissed off DW. Could possibly be PED’s i guess…speculation is killing me.
After his loss against okami, I recall dw commenting on nate’s ‘heart’ and going as far as suggesting he chokes in big fights… Too bad for the UFC… he is a great fighter and hopefully nothing is too serious regarding his health…
Waiting on this commision press conference at 4pm ET. Don’t know what the comission could possible rule him unable to fight, which also makes Dana fire him. Maybe claimed PED’s? Wasn’t weight, since he only have 1.6 pounds to go a day ago. Doubt it was an injury, he looked good in warmups too. Nate said he’d be back, so its not something permanent like HIV/Hep. Strange…
Well it was something that had been given 3 chances to rectify and failed to do so, and possibly the willingness, or lack there of, of Nate to try to fix it is what prompted the wrath of Dana.
My initial thinking on this is that Nate Marquardt doesn’t owe any of us a damned thing.
Who Nate Marqaurdt DOES owe something to however, is Dana White & the Fertitas.
I don’t care if NM contracted the T virus fighting zombies or shoots kryptonite to help him bulk up or slim down, none of us are entitled to know.
DW on the other hand is his “partner” in the Nate Marquardt business, and probably deserved to be kept in the loop.
Obviously DW wasn’t, so he cut NM loose, probably 50% on perceived personal “betrayal” and 50% to send a message that no fighter can fu<k with the org when it comes to stuff like this, especailly when you're the main event.
Best of luck to NM with his life and whenever, if ever, he fights again…
I wonder if he has AIDS/HIV or hepatitis. Some sort of blood disease that he knew about but led Dana White believe he would be able to fight in the main event. I’m looking forward to tomorrow cause I believe Nate Marquardt is getting interviewed by Ariel Hewani. Pretty sure we will hear the bottom of this.
We will find out whatever Nate feels like saying. No more, no less.