NBC Sports posted the following video on Nate Marquardt cutting weight for what was supposed to be his UFC welterweight debut on Sunday night.
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Nothing seems wrong in this. His weight seems to be on point. The Pennsylvania Athletic Commission will be having a press conference at 4 p.m. ET to talk about the situation. It should be interesting to see what develops.
What a difference a day makes!
Just yesterday I was analyzing the UFC Live 4 card, really excited for a solid free TV event by the UFC. My excitement was largely due to a big-time main event between Nate Marquardt and Rick Story.
Then, today happened.
First, word came that Marquardt didn’t pass his pre-fight physical and was out of the fight.
Then, Dana White dropped this little bomb:
Neither White or Marquardt’s camp are commenting on the firing. I mean, what could have happened to get him fired entirely?
In a big blow to the UFC Live 4 card, headliner Nate Marquardt will not be able to compete against Rick Story on Sunday after failing the pre-fight physical.
Following the failed physical, UFC President posted this, stating Marquardt will no longer be with the UFC
MMAJunkie.com was the first to report on the matter
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has learned that Marquardt is a late scratch from Sunday’s UFC on Versus 4 event, and opponent Rick Story (13-3 MMA, 6-1 UFC) will now instead meet Charlie Brenneman (12-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) on the evening’s main card.
With the late change, a highly-anticipated heavyweight bout between Pat Barry (6-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and Cheick Kongo (15-6-2 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) has now been promoted to main-event status.
The reason for Marquardt’s last-minute withdrawal, mere hours before he was scheduled to hit the scales at the event’s official weigh-ins, wasn’t immediately evident. However, Marquardt’s camp did release a statement insisting the setback was temporary and his future still lies at 170 pounds.
“Nate is really disappointed,” the statement read. “He really was looking forward to making his welterweight debut, and he plans to be back in there as soon as possible.”
Brenneman is the replacement, but that probably won’t suit Story, who took this fight on short notice for a chance to really thrust himself into the title picture. This fight seems like a lose-lose situation for Story.
For Marquardt, it is hard to know what will happen next, but clearly there is still more to this story.
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If you weren’t on Facebook before, the UFC is giving you plenty of reason to do it now.
Once again, the premiere MMA organization is airing preliminary fights for an event on the social media network.
This Sunday, UFC Live 4 featured four main card bouts, but will have 7 prelim fights, and all will air live on Facebook, starting at 4:55 p.m.
Now, I am a big fan of watching any fight, but the UFC Live 4 prelims are really an impressive set of bouts.
The first fight of the night will feature Michael Johnson, who was a punch or two away from winning the Ultimate Fighter Season 13.
Then you have fighters like Joe Lauzon and Daniel Roberts taking the octagon and an impressive lightweight showdown from Charles Oliveira and Nik Lentz.
You also have the featherweight debuts from Joe Stevenson and Tyson Griffin. Griffin will face off with Manny Gamburyan in a bout that I personally think will be a PPV quality fight.
I have to hand it to the UFC. Years ago, you used to have to buy the event DVD to watch prelim fights, but now, they are providing them through all sorts of means, including YouTube and Facebook.
So, once again, if you haven’t “Liked” the UFC on Facebook, you better do it before 5 p.m. tomorrow, or you are going to miss out on some impressive fights.
The odds for UFC Live 4 have been released, courtesy of BetOnFighting.com, and there are some interesting betting lines for the event.
In the main event, Rick Story is actually favored at -130 against Nate Marquardt, who is making his welterweight debut with a money line of +100.
Story is on a nice run, but Marquardt seems to have the better package to me. Marquardt may not be getting the respect due to his past struggles with wrestlers, but Story doesn’t have the same size that Marquardt had to deal with when he fought the likes of Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami.
In the co-main event, Cheick Kongo is favored to beat Pat Barry as Kongo has a line of -205 while Barry has odds of +165.
Kongo has the experience factor on Barry, who has still not quite lived up to his potential. Barry has really been drilling his ground game, which will be key in this contest.
For complete odds for each of Sunday’s fights, check out the jump.
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