Marquardt Hopes to Seize Stateside Opportunity Saturday Night
Marquardt’s opportunity
Josh Gross Aug 5, 2005
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 5 — America, meet Nathan. Nathan, America.
In this neon-lit city that never sleeps, a wide-eyed 26-year-old Nathan Marquardt (pictures) will realize a dream Saturday night, one familiar with thousands of young mixed martial artists.
“Even though he’s fought in Japan for years, his ultimate goal is
to become a UFC champion,” said Marquardt’s long-time manager Will
Hendricks. “He’s done everything in his power to reach that goal,
and he’s close now so hopefully we’re going to be there.”
In a sense, Denver, Colorado’s Marquardt has done it in reverse, earning his stripes overseas rather than taking the homegrown route most often navigated by young American fighters.
The fight with Sudo also resulted in one of several lessons that, Marquardt said, eventually lead him here, versus middleweight Ivan Salaverry (pictures), in a fight that airs live on the debut of SpikeTV’s “Ultimate Fight Night.”
“It has been a long road but at the same time I feel that my career has just begun,” said Marquardt, who’s developed into one of the sport’s most complete pros — he’s as dangerous on his feet as he is on his back.
“Up to this point I really feel like it’s been a learning experience for me,” he continued. “I think God’s probably wanted me to learn a lot of lesson’s before I got to this point. And I’ve learned a lot. I’m starting to come into my prime and this is my chance.”
“That’s the greatest opportunity of his career,” said Hendricks. “Pancrase was great but … it was a very limited audience. The fact that Nathan is going to be able to get out there and show what he’s got in front of millions of fans, you can’t get any better than that.”
Hendricks is right. There is no getting better than this. Not in America, where even the main event of a UFC Pay-Per-View pales by comparison. When Jeremy Horn (pictures) challenges Chuck Liddell (pictures) later this month for the UFC light heavyweight belt, UFC president Dana White would be happy to do 200,000 PPV buys. If 2 million people tune-in Saturday, White will likely be disappointed.
A lot has changed in stateside MMA during the six years Marquardt has fought as a professional. And considering the vast majority of his fights have come in Japan, where this sport is comfort food for fight fan’s souls, he’s been given a unique opportunity.
Names like Forrest Griffin (pictures), Stephan Bonnar (pictures) and Diego Sanchez (pictures) are perhaps more recognizable than any UFC fighter outside of Royce Gracie (pictures) and Ken Shamrock (pictures). The power of free television, something White has long said would change everything, is inarguable.
And fighters like Marquardt and Salaverry — well rounded, exciting, complete — are exactly the kind the UFC is willing to put in this high-profile slot.
“You aren’t going to see the ground-and-pound,” said Hendricks of Marquardt’s fighting style. “You’re going to see him going for submissions, knockouts — anything he can get.”
His debut could have come four years ago, on September 2001’s cursed UFC 33 card.
Considered at the time to be Zuffa’s most important accomplishment — the return of UFC to pay cable television — it resulted in disaster, says White, because the five televised fights boringly went the distance and the main event spilled over the three-hour time slot.
Three months before White’s worst nightmare, he sat in the ballroom of Friant, California’s Table Mountain Casino watching Marquardt, holding the KOP belt he won after 30 minutes in the ring with Shonie Carter (pictures), fight Gil Castillo (pictures), an undefeated, powerful welterweight in his mid-30s who just captured the King of the Cage 170-pound belt.
While the contest was promoted by the IFC, for all intents and purposes it was a UFC eliminator, with the winner earning an invite to compete against 185-pound UFC champion Dave Menne (pictures).
Marquardt did well the first two rounds, slipping away from Castillo, getting up off his back, striking when openings presented themselves and looking for submissions.
But then disaster struck and his game left him. During the final three rounds Castillo went on to control his younger challenger, winning by unanimous decision.
“It was very disappointing,” said Hendricks of that hot, Central California summer night. “And what most people don’t know is he didn’t put on his best performance because halfway through the fight he had a back injury. And it’s not an excuse — it’s the truth.
Marquardt was devastated. Not only had he failed to represent Pancrase, an organization to which he and Hendricks are very loyal, he failed himself.
When you’re a young kid staring your dream in its face and you come up short, not because someone bested you but because your body failed, there’s no thinking about getting ‘em next time.
Though draped by a wet towel, the anguish on his face was obvious. No consolation from Hendricks, Pancrase representatives, who flew in from Tokyo, or his family could make the hurt and disgust go away.
“It really took him nine months to recover from that injury to where he was 100 percent again,” Hendricks recalled. No telling how long it took the rest of him to recover.
But now, today, the day before the biggest fight of his life, there is a new perspective.
“There’s a lot of things I had to learn still,” said Marquardt. “I learned a lot in that fight. I feel like, you know, just being the better the fighter isn’t enough. There’s a lot of different things that I didn’t know about in mixed martial arts that I’ve learned since then.”
Sure, he’d lose and regain his Pancrase crown twice since the Castillo fight, but few things have had as big an impact on him professionally as his failure in Friant.
“When I was young I just would go 100 percent and ‘balls to the wall’ until I finished the guy,” he said. “And that was always the number-one goal. I didn’t pay attention to rounds. Controlling the top position. I learned a lot, even from that fight alone.”
In this neon-lit city that never sleeps, a wide-eyed 26-year-old Nathan Marquardt (pictures) will realize a dream Saturday night, one familiar with thousands of young mixed martial artists.
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In a sense, Denver, Colorado’s Marquardt has done it in reverse, earning his stripes overseas rather than taking the homegrown route most often navigated by young American fighters.
Eight opponents and eight wins into the first year of his career,
Marquardt, then a smallish welterweight, found himself in Tokyo
fighting Genki Sudo
(pictures). Though he lost by
submission to Japan’s most flamboyant fighter that December night
in 1999, the bout marked the first of Marquardt’s 20 Pancrase
appearances, during which he thrice held a King of Pancrase
belt.
The fight with Sudo also resulted in one of several lessons that, Marquardt said, eventually lead him here, versus middleweight Ivan Salaverry (pictures), in a fight that airs live on the debut of SpikeTV’s “Ultimate Fight Night.”
“It has been a long road but at the same time I feel that my career has just begun,” said Marquardt, who’s developed into one of the sport’s most complete pros — he’s as dangerous on his feet as he is on his back.
“Up to this point I really feel like it’s been a learning experience for me,” he continued. “I think God’s probably wanted me to learn a lot of lesson’s before I got to this point. And I’ve learned a lot. I’m starting to come into my prime and this is my chance.”
“That’s the greatest opportunity of his career,” said Hendricks. “Pancrase was great but … it was a very limited audience. The fact that Nathan is going to be able to get out there and show what he’s got in front of millions of fans, you can’t get any better than that.”
Hendricks is right. There is no getting better than this. Not in America, where even the main event of a UFC Pay-Per-View pales by comparison. When Jeremy Horn (pictures) challenges Chuck Liddell (pictures) later this month for the UFC light heavyweight belt, UFC president Dana White would be happy to do 200,000 PPV buys. If 2 million people tune-in Saturday, White will likely be disappointed.
A lot has changed in stateside MMA during the six years Marquardt has fought as a professional. And considering the vast majority of his fights have come in Japan, where this sport is comfort food for fight fan’s souls, he’s been given a unique opportunity.
Names like Forrest Griffin (pictures), Stephan Bonnar (pictures) and Diego Sanchez (pictures) are perhaps more recognizable than any UFC fighter outside of Royce Gracie (pictures) and Ken Shamrock (pictures). The power of free television, something White has long said would change everything, is inarguable.
And fighters like Marquardt and Salaverry — well rounded, exciting, complete — are exactly the kind the UFC is willing to put in this high-profile slot.
“You aren’t going to see the ground-and-pound,” said Hendricks of Marquardt’s fighting style. “You’re going to see him going for submissions, knockouts — anything he can get.”
His debut could have come four years ago, on September 2001’s cursed UFC 33 card.
Considered at the time to be Zuffa’s most important accomplishment — the return of UFC to pay cable television — it resulted in disaster, says White, because the five televised fights boringly went the distance and the main event spilled over the three-hour time slot.
Three months before White’s worst nightmare, he sat in the ballroom of Friant, California’s Table Mountain Casino watching Marquardt, holding the KOP belt he won after 30 minutes in the ring with Shonie Carter (pictures), fight Gil Castillo (pictures), an undefeated, powerful welterweight in his mid-30s who just captured the King of the Cage 170-pound belt.
While the contest was promoted by the IFC, for all intents and purposes it was a UFC eliminator, with the winner earning an invite to compete against 185-pound UFC champion Dave Menne (pictures).
Marquardt did well the first two rounds, slipping away from Castillo, getting up off his back, striking when openings presented themselves and looking for submissions.
But then disaster struck and his game left him. During the final three rounds Castillo went on to control his younger challenger, winning by unanimous decision.
“It was very disappointing,” said Hendricks of that hot, Central California summer night. “And what most people don’t know is he didn’t put on his best performance because halfway through the fight he had a back injury. And it’s not an excuse — it’s the truth.
Marquardt was devastated. Not only had he failed to represent Pancrase, an organization to which he and Hendricks are very loyal, he failed himself.
When you’re a young kid staring your dream in its face and you come up short, not because someone bested you but because your body failed, there’s no thinking about getting ‘em next time.
Though draped by a wet towel, the anguish on his face was obvious. No consolation from Hendricks, Pancrase representatives, who flew in from Tokyo, or his family could make the hurt and disgust go away.
“It really took him nine months to recover from that injury to where he was 100 percent again,” Hendricks recalled. No telling how long it took the rest of him to recover.
But now, today, the day before the biggest fight of his life, there is a new perspective.
“There’s a lot of things I had to learn still,” said Marquardt. “I learned a lot in that fight. I feel like, you know, just being the better the fighter isn’t enough. There’s a lot of different things that I didn’t know about in mixed martial arts that I’ve learned since then.”
Sure, he’d lose and regain his Pancrase crown twice since the Castillo fight, but few things have had as big an impact on him professionally as his failure in Friant.
“When I was young I just would go 100 percent and ‘balls to the wall’ until I finished the guy,” he said. “And that was always the number-one goal. I didn’t pay attention to rounds. Controlling the top position. I learned a lot, even from that fight alone.”
