Nate Marquardt is finally making his return to MMA. After being released by the UFC last June, Marquardt was set to return to action with England’s BAMMA organization. However, after multiple delays, Marquardt was released from the organization. Now he is set to return to Zuffa, but this time under the Strikeforce banner.
Marquardt was released last June just hours before he was set to make his welterweight debut at UFC on Versus 4 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Marquardt was unable to gain clearance to fight due to his hormone replacement therapy use. After the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission announced the decision, UFC President Dana White released Marquardt from the organization.
He last fought at UFC 128 in March 2011, defeating Dan Miller via unanimous decision.
The veteran of 14 UFC fights, Marquardt debuted for the organization at Ultimate Fight Night in August 2005. His UFC career got off to a rocky start, with Marquardt testing positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, following his debut. But he never failed another drug test following his first issue, and did not run into any problems until his release from the UFC.
Marquardt is expected to make his Strikeforce debut against Tyron Woodley, with the matchup expected to be for the currently vacant Strikeforce welterweight championship.
Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com regarding the full announcement of Marquardt’s signing with Strikeforce.
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the plot thickens
Never thought this would happen, maybe i’m not paying attention enough but didn’t Nate burn some bridges…piss off the big DW. I’m hoping he comes back well, one of those guys i used to think was champion material for sure.
“Nate marquardt will never fight in the ufc again”…. But he will fight in our other promotion..for the ww title. LOl. Well at least maybe he won’t need to juice anymore to keep his weight for mw. Dana sure is a funny bastard though.
Guys, the thing to remember is that Dana says stuff when he’s emotional that he sometimes changes his mind about later. He said recently in an interview (or somewhere) that he would definitely consider giving Nate another chance. He said something along the lines that he’s always like Marquardt and thinks he’s a very talented fighter, and could see giving him another chance. So I’m guessing this is his chance to prove he can make ww consistently, and if he wins the title (and maybe defend it once or twice), eventually they can bring him back to the UFC and have another champ vs champ fight. I’d be stoked for a Marquardt GSP fight. Personally I’m really glad to hear this news, Nate’s got a lot of talent and is a top guy for sure.
If he is able to beat a couple of guys in SF then this will only be a stop-gap on his way back to the UFC.
Nice, I’ll be glad to see “Nate the great” even at SF. We all know Dana, so I agree with Newfie…
I’m pretty sure we now all know that Dana can get emotional and make some comments that are perhaps not written in stone.
As with any professional sport, people get suspended for this stuff, and allowed to continue their careers. The status of MMA makes this very difficult for someone like Nate who is a draw, and a quality fighter, but doesn’t seem to have a place to fight.
I like Nate, humble fighter, but I can’t overlook that he seems to not get how to follow the rules. Nevertheless, I’m happy to see him back and look forward to the fight – which is a nice match-up.
What a weird / random past year Nate has had.
This is crazy! Nate shuld have at least one fight before he gets a title shot! I hope that this is not true. Tyron Woodley should face Bobby Voelker for the vacant Strikeforce Welterweight title.