Marquardt set for UFC 109 fight with Sonnen, eyes guaranteed title shot with win
By John Livingston | February 6, 2010
With a win today, Denver’s own Nate “The Great” Marquardt will put himself in position for his second shot at Anderson Silva’s 185 lb. title.
UFC President Dana White confirmed on Wednesday that the winner of tonight’s UFC 109 middleweight bout between Chael Sonnen and Marquardt will decide who gets the next title shot against the winner of a April 10 fight at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi between Vitor Belfort and the reigning champion Silva.
“We always had it in mind,” White said. “These are two of the top five [middleweights] in the world depending on what you look at. Nate’s been deserving it for a while.”
Since losing to Silva in his first title shot back in July 2007, Marquardt has been on a tear on his way back up to the top of contention. He was won four of five fights since then (all via stoppage) with his only loss coming by the way of split decision in a fight where Marquardt dominated Thales Leites, but was penalized during the bout for a few illegal blows. He is 10-2 over the past five years.
His most recent win was a vicious 21 second knock-out of Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Demian Maia back in August 2009.
He had to wait around awhile to find an opponent as there was much confusion as to who would fight Silva next and when the champion would heal from an elbow injury he decided to take time to recover from.
Former PRIDE middleweight and light-heavyweight champion Dan Henderson believed he was deserving of another shot at the belt and fans dreamed of a number one contender fight between Marquardt and Hederson, but contract dispute between Hendo and UFC brass fizzled and he eventually left the organization in favor of STRIKEFORCE.
UFC matchmaker Joe Silva came up with the plan of Sonnen in late 2009 and now Sonnen has to be excited about his opportunity at a quick title-shot.
Sonnen is now 2-1 with back-to-back decision victories over Dan Miller and Yushin Okami after a submission loss to Maia since coming back for another stint in the UFC.
Sonnen hasen’t exactly performed as well as Marquardt of late and some argue the competition he has faced is undeserving of a number one contender’s fight, but as we all have seen, anything can happen in the octagon.
If Marquardt is victorious look back here at Colorado Sports Desk for a look at how he matches up with Silva and Belfort and to hear how much he has improved since that first round TKO loss to Silva in 2007.
Tonight’s action can be found only on pay-per-view at 8:00 p.m. MDT. UFC Hall of Fame members Randy “The Natural” Couture and Mark “The Hammer” Coleman headline tonight’s card ina light-heavyweight bout and the two 40+ year-old MMA pioneers and wrestling standouts will most likely cancel eachother out on the ground leading to a strikign duel on the feet, where Couture should have a major advantage.
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