The King of Pancrase and Strikeforce welterweight champion, Nate Marquardt, is strutting into the final Strikeforce show knowing that he puts a whole new fold in the UFC welterweight division if he gets past Tarec Saffiedine this Saturday. Surging Demian Maia? Nate Marquardt knocked him out. Martin Kampmann? Nate TKO’d him back at UFC 86. Who doesn’t want to see Nate fight any of the winners in the unofficial mini welterweight tournament taking place at UFC 158? Seriously, raise your hand so we can glare at you. Nate Marquardt vs. Carlos Condit? Wanna see it. Nate The Great vs. Rory MacDonald? Yes. Nate sharing the cage with Johny Hendricks or Jake Ellenberger? Uh huh. Book it please. And come on, Nate vs. Nick Diaz or GSP? Pfft, some sort of classification of an ‘of the night’ bonus is getting handed out in any combination of those fights. And quite frankly, this Saturday’s main event between Marquardt and Saffiedine has a good chance of producing a memorable .gif for all of us to behold.
In the meantime, take a look back at Nate Marquardt, the life-long fighter, through the lens of Showtime’s I Am a Fighter series. This Saturday is going to be so, so rawesome.
