What Nate Marquardt Must Do To Get a Title Shot

Added on Sep 15, 2010 by Bill Jackson in

UFC & MMA

It’s no secret that Nate Marquardt has been a man possessed since his losing effort against champion Anderson Silva in 2007. Nate would be the first to tell you that another shot at Silva wouldn’t be a rematch because he isn’t the same person that fought the champ last time. While that may be true, the person Nate is now is clearly not the next person in line for a shot at the UFC middleweight title.

First things first, if Nate plans to get to the top, he must start his title run tonight against the tough and talented Rousimar Palhares. Currently 3-1 in the UFC—his only loss being to the great Dan Henderson by decision in his UFC debut—Palhares is trying to set himself up for a shot at gold.

While Marquardt is the betting favorite, even in victory it is hard to look good against Palhares. His strength and perilous ground game will force Marquardt to take the conservative route and likely try to box his way to a decision. Considering Marquardt is coming off a loss to Chael Sonnen, a win here will not be enough to push Nate into title contention.

Marquardt will need another big win before he is considered for the belt and with the winner of Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami’s bout in November looking towards the next shot, and Chael Sonnen fighting the champ sometime around the end of the year, there appears to only be two legitimate options for Marquardt’s next step.

One of those options is the recently revitalized Chris Leben. Entering the year on a two-fight losing-streak with a suspension for a positive steroid test in between them, Leben has gone 3-0 this year with the two biggest wins coming just two weeks apart. In June, Leben upset Aaron Simpson by TKO in the second round at The Ultimate Fighter 11 Finale. Just two weeks later, Leben filled in for an injured Wanderlei Silva and submitted Yoshihiro Akiyama in the third round in another upset.

Now, after many assumed his career in the UFC basically over, Leben has set himself up as a contender in the middleweight division. If Marquardt were to meet Leben later this year and look impressive, then a case could be made that he is the next top contender. Honestly, I would have a hard time giving Leben a chance against Marquardt, but that is why they fight them and Leben has to keep moving up if he wants to stay relevant.

The other option, and the more likely one, is for Marquardt to face the winner of Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama, which takes place at UFC 120 next month. If Bisping can get a win, he will be on a two-fight win-streak and would be a marketable fight for Marquardt. Akiyama is always an attraction and even though he lost his last fight, it was against a late replacement that he hadn’t trained for and before that hadn’t lost a fight since 2005.

Of course, in the UFC it doesn’t just matter who you beat, but how you look doing it. If Marquardt can look good against either of these opponents, it would likely mean another title shot in the somewhat barren middleweight division. If he barely gets by either of them, they might have him face one of the losers in the upcoming big fights at middleweight.

Either way, no matter what opponent lies ahead for Nate, he has to take care of business tonight. If he were to lose to Palhares tonight, he could kiss another fight with Anderson Silva goodbye. That is, unless Sonnen can manage to knock Silva down a step closer to Marquardt.