The second edition of the Hidden Gem series features UFC welterweight Nate Marquardt who is set to compete on the Fox Sports 1 preliminary card of UFC 166 this Saturday in Houston, Texas.
Marquardt (32-12-2 MMA, 11-6 UFC) will fight Hector Lombard and is looking to rebound from back to back losses against Tarec Saffiedine, in which he lost the Strikeforce Welterweight Championship in January, and Jake Ellenberger at UFC 158 this past March.
His opponent, Hector Lombard (32-4-1 MMA, 1-2 UFC) is also seeking to return to the win column after going 1-2 in the UFC with a win over Rousimar Palhares sandwiched between losses to Tim Boetsch and Yushin Okami. The bout will be Lombard’s welterweight debut with the UFC.
Nate Marquardt vs. Yves Edwards- August 14, 1999
Bas Rutten Invitational 4
Former Middleweight title challenger Nate Marquardt and longtime UFC veteran Yves Edwards (42-20-1 MMA, 10-8 UFC ), who combined share over 100 professional fights, were virtual unknowns in the summer of 1999 and met in the quarter-finals of the Bas Rutten Invitational 4 Lightweight Championship.
The tournament style promotion put on five shows spanning from February of 1999 to October of the same year and has featured notables such as Joe Doerksen, Jens Pulver, Joe Stevenson, Denis Kang, and John Alessio, all of whom have at one point fought in the UFC.
At the time Marquardt was 3-0 and his professional career had only spanned four months compared to Yves Edwards’ career of nearly two years and eight professional fights.
Marquardt continued his MMA career primarily in Japan for the next six years where he became a three time Pancrase Middleweight Champion until making his UFC debut in 2005.
The Bahamas native, Edwards resumed his career exclusively in the United States and won eleven of his next fifteen fights (11-3-1) before losing to Matt Serra in his UFC debut in 2001.
Since his UFC debut, Edwards has fought for virtually every major promotion including Bellator, Pride, EliteXC, WEC and Strikeforce before returning to the UFC in 2010.<
Edwards is expected to compete at UFC Fight For The Troops 3 in a lightweight matchup against Yancy Medeiros this November on the card’s Facebook Prelims broadcast. It will be his nineteenth fight with the UFC.
