Nate Marquardt got his career back on track at UFC Fight Night 43 with a strong first round showing against James Te Huna that resulted in a submission victory.
Round One:
Te Huna looks huge compared to Marquardt as he prepares to make his middleweight debut.
Nice right hand from Marquardt. He throws a high kick. Te Huna pressing forward though, but he eats a knee and drops down hurt.
Te Huna hangs on though and gets back up. Marquardt looks fired up here and he throws Te Huna to the mat.
Working inside Te Huna’s guard now and landing hard shots. Looks like a good version of Marquardt has shown up here tonight.
Big elbows from Marquardt and he seems to have opened up an early cut. He moves into half guard.
Te Huna finds space to shunt out and manages to get back to his feet. They clinch again and Te Huna manages to press Marquardt against the cage and unleashes some big shots, with uppercuts landing and backing his opponent up.
Marquardt reverses the position though and then gets a takedown straight into mount. Marquardt’s not quite so aggressive as he was earlier though which is just as well for Te Huna given the dominat position.
Te Huna manages to scramble and get to his knees. He’s trying to get up to his feet, but Marquardt’s latched onto one of his arms, rolls with it and cranks on the armbar to force the tapout with 4.34mins of Rd1 gone.
Good win for Marquardt and it looks like moving back to middleweight was a smart decision for him as he looked much more like his old self here.
