Inte allt för länge sedan hade Nate Marquardt två segrar i bagaget och welterviktstiteln i Strikeforce och vägen tillbaka till UFC utstakad. Det enda som återstod var att försvara sin titel en sista gång mot Tarec Saffiedine innan Strikeforce stängde dörrarna. Det gick inte som Marquardt hade planerat.
Efter fem ronder och full tid stod Marquardt, med ett mycket ömt ben, besegrad via enhälligt domslut och förutsättningarna för en återkomst till UFC såg plötsligt väldigt annorlunda ut. Marquardt medger nu i efterhand att han såg förbi Saffiedine och att han har sitt ego att skylla.
”Thinking back, I’m like, ‘well, why didn’t I do this or why didn’t I do that?’ It wasn’t a technical issue, I know how to check leg kicks. Anyone that says, ‘oh, you should have checked the leg kicks.’ Well, they don’t really understand. I can go with guys from Thailand and spar with those guys and not get kicked in the leg like that. I was a mental issue. I’ve worked through that and looked at all the reasons and I definitely feel like I have closure on that. I think one of the main things was that I over looked Saffiedine subconsciously. It wasn’t something that I did on purpose. I trained very hard for Saffiedine, but, I don’t know if it was ego that got in the way or what. There were things I should have done in my camp to train for him specifically that I said, ‘ well, what I have right now is good enough. It’s not going to matter.’ That’s not my normal thing. My normal thing is I want to get the best training every single camp, every single fight. The best for me and the best to fight my opponent, specifically. And, I didn’t do that and that was a huge mistake. Everything can kind of sprout out from that as far reasons why I wasn’t mentally there.”, säger Marquardt till MMAfighting.
Trots motgången fick Marquardt en plats i UFC och till helgen ställs han mot Jake Ellenberger på UFC 158 när organisationen intar Bell Centre i Montreal i Kanada.
