UFC Fight Night 22 goes tonight with Nate Marquardt taking on Rousimar Palhares in the feature matchup. The event will be broadcast live on Spike TV immediately preceding the season premiere of TUF: GSP vs Koscheck.
Nate Marquardt and Rousimar Palhares talk about this fight, how they are going to approach it and what it means for them.
The UFC odds list the much higher profile Marquardt as the favorite at -150 while Palhares pays +190.
Nate “The Great” Marquardt vs Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares
UFC Fight Night 22 goes next Wednesday with Nate Marquardt and Rousimar Palhares headlining the card. This fight was originally scheduled to go at UFC 118, but was moved to Fight Night 22 when the former headliner Demian Maia was forced to pull out with an eye injury.
Nate Marquardt (8-3 UFC, 29-9-2 MMA) has a background in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and kick boxing. He is coming off of a loss to Chael Sonnen at UFC 109 that would have put him in line for a title shot. Marquardt couldn’t stop the wrestler Sonnen from taking him down and controlling the fight.
Rousimar Palhares (4-1 UFC, 11-2-0 MMA) is acknowledged as a master of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is one of the top grapplers in the world with eight of his victories coming by submission. He has yet to be knocked out with both of his losses coming by submission.
This will be an interesting fight with Marquardt going up against someone who is actually better than him at BJJ. He obviously has the advantage while standing up, but Palhares hasn’t been adequately victimized standing up to think that this fight won’t go to the mat and stay there.
Marquart is the UFC Fight Night 22 odds favorite at -210, but a Palhares upset, currently paying +170 is a very realistic possibility.
