It seems that dust has settled after the UFC 158 shuffle caused by Rory MacDonald’s injury. With Rory out, Johny Hendricks took his place against Carlos Caondit, leaving Jake Ellenberger without an opponent. Enter former Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nate Marquardt, who will be filling in for Hendricks.
Marquardt (32-11-2) is looking to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to Tarec Saffiedine at the Strikeforce finale. “The Great” will be making his return to the octagon, he was released behind a TRT scandal in June of 2011. The Jackson’s MMA product made his first trip to welterweight in his Strikeforce debut, knocking out Tyron Woodley in the fourth round of their title fight.
Ellenberger (28-6) makes his walk to the cage after having defeated Jay Hieron at UFC on FX 5, rebounding from a come-from-behind loss to Martin Kampmann, which snapped a six-fight win-streak.
UFC 158 takes place at Montreal’s Bell Centre on March 16.
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I suspected Nate would get the call here, and personally I like this fight. It’ll be interesting to see how Marquardt bounces back.
Well, 158 bounced back fast from Rory’s injury, happy to see it on such short notice.
Before his last fight I would have probably have leaned towards Nate and still don’t know who to predict to win yet. Good save for the card, decent match up.
I would’ve preferred to see Maia get another fight under his belt honestly. The sooner he’s fighting for the title the better.
Ellenburger vs Condit rematch might have worked, with Maia v Hendrix for the next title shot but Maia and Hendrix both potentially getting a title shot is the better scenario and it would have been very short notice.
If there were ever a time for Jake to utilize legs kicks, its now. As bad as his leg was, there almost HAS to be some kind of residual damage that he can capitalize on. Plus, I think if Nate starts getting chopped in the leg again, it might affect him mentally.
Either way, I would have rather seen Woodley, but I really like this match up too. We finally get to see when Nate stacks up against the 170ers of the UFC.
Should be a good fight. GO JAKE!