UFC
Nate Marquardt returning at BAMMA 8 in December, still moving to welterweight
Sep 3, 2011 - 2:30:13 PM Nate Marquardt returning at BAMMA 8 in December, still moving to welterweight

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Nate Marquardt will return to action this December for the first time since his release from the UFC this June, and still plans on making his welterweight debut as well.

Marquardt was released from the UFC after failing to lower his testosterone levels in time for the weigh-ins of his UFC on Versus 4 fight with Rick Story, which prompted the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission to take him out of the fight the day before the event.

After revealing the reasons for his removal and admitting to his undergoing of testosterone replacement therapy, Marquardt wound up signing with UK promotion BAMMA, and BAMMA's head of business development Liam Fisher now says Marquardt's return will come at BAMMA 8.

"We're looking for Nate to debut in December at the next show," Fisher said in an interview with MMAWeekly.com. "Nate's coming over for BAMMA 7 and he's going to be spending a week with us, we're doing some press over in the UK and bits of filming here and there, and we're sitting down with Nate to talk opponents."

Marquardt is going to enter BAMMA as one of the most high-profile fighters on their roster, and in a welterweight division that BAMMA has not yet crowned a champion in, Marquardt is likely to play a large part.

"It's a division we don't have a title holder at the moment, it's definitely something that we're building," Fisher said. "Nate's a part of that, he wants to fight at welter, he doesn't want to fight at middleweight. We're discussing opponents right at the moment."

"We've got a few ideas, we've got a few signings in the works at the moment and like I said we're trying to build our welterweight division."

When Marquardt returns, it will be his first fight since his March victory over Dan Miller at UFC 128. The longtime middleweight was to make the drop to welterweight against Story before the TRT issue popped up.

Link to Original Source Article

Penick's Analysis: Marquardt in the welterweight division is going to definitely be a favorite against anyone BAMMA can book him against. Eventually, the promotion is likely to build to a fight between Marquardt and Paul Daley, provided Daley can bounce back from his current two-fight losing streak, but outside of that fight nothing pops out opponent-wise for Marquardt. He's going to be in an image rebuilding period for a bit, but he's likely going to have success in BAMMA for the time being.