MMA Fighter Bios: NATE MARQUARDT

NATE MARQUARDT

BORN: Lander, Wyoming
6’0, middlweight

“Nate the Great”, it’s a solid nickname for Nate Marquardt. Straightforward, to the point, and fitting. Marquardt fights in a simple fashion as well, he goes out and gets the job done. Be it by KO, decision or submission, for the most part Marquardt keeps quiet and just lets his work inside the cage do the talking. It has spoken volumes for the decade long MMA vet. Marquardt began training in his teens and started to fight in 1999. He went 6-0 and rolled through his competition with solid submissions. From rear naked chokes to triangles, Marquardt was putting on a BJJ clinic. Unfortunately he hadn’t mastered it all and was taught a lesson via armbar from Genki Sudo in late 1999, to temporarily slow down the rising American star. But Marquardt would achieve a lot of success in Pancrase and win over Shonie CArter, Daiju Takase and defeat Kiuma Kunioku to become the first King of Pancrase Middleweight championship. He would defend the title twice, befor being defeated by Kium Kunioku. However, just as before, Marquardt would come back strong with a couple more wins and eventually avenge his loss to Kunioku via a spectacular flying knee knockout that landed him the King of Pancrase Middlweight belt once again. He would defense it before being defeated by Ricardo Almeida. A constant them in Marquardt’s career has been achieving high levels of success, and even after being defeated, rising back up to the top again. He would once again do so and secure the middleweight title and defend it once more. The Ultimate Fighting Championship was very well aware of his skill and invited him to compete in their Ultimate Fight Night show in the summer of 2005. Marquard was victorious over Ivan Salaverry and would win 3 more times in the organization over Joe Doerksen, Crafton Wallace and Dean Lister, to get a crack at the UFC middleweight belt. He was defeated by the seemingly unstoppable Anderson Silva, but vowed to return. He did so in impressive fashion by tapping out Jeremy Horn via guillotine, and come back from a split decision loss to Thales Leites to score 3 KOs in a row. Marquardt would defeat solid striker Martin Kampmann via strikes, as well as Wilson Gouveia in a flurry of strikes, and then go on to KO Demian Maiai in a spectacular one-punch knockout in the summer of 2009. Marquardt is just a very well rounded fighter who is dangerous in all areas. His training with the extremely proficient Greg Jackson’s academy, in addition to hard work ethic and burning desire to be the best, has allowed him to reach his potential in MMA. He’s constantly getting better and is a very positive person who tries to future on reinventing himself as a fighter as opposed to dwelling on previous mishaps.

GREAT HONORS
3 time King of Pancrase Middleweight Champ
1999 World Vale Tudo Federation Champ
1999 Bas Rutten Invitational Lightweight Champ
2000 Ring of Fire Middleweight Champion
Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo Murgel