Marquardt Victorious at UFC Fight Night 22

Nate Marquardt may not have envisioned defeating Rousimar Palhares in the exact way that he ended up doing so, but when you want to get back into title contention, you’ll take what you can get.

A fight that was really picking up steam between Marquardt and Palhares came to an abrupt end when a TKO by referee stoppage was declared just over three minutes into the opening round. The stoppage itself wasn’t especially controversial: Palhares took a solid shot from Marquardt while on his back, then rolled halfway over to his side and merely covered up without moving or responding while Marquardt continued to throw uninterrupted shots.

It was what happened right before that was the strange part: Palhares got his hands on one of Marquardt’s legs and sat back to begin contorting it into a painful mess, but before he could start to apply one of his dreaded heel hooks, Marquardt (who was standing up) turned and yanked his foot out. Palhares made a gesture towards Marquardt, then toward the referee, and Marquardt took the opportunity to blast his opponent in the face. That was pretty much it.

Apparently, Palhares believed that Marquardt was able to get his leg free so quickly because he was “greased up”. While that would have been a smart choice, it also wouldn’t have been in compliance with the rules, and Marquardt immediately denied any such wrongdoing. He told Joe Rogan right afterward that multiple officials, including the referee and ringside doctor, had checked his legs out and decided that Palhares’ accusations were baseless.

So, we got an anticlimactic finish to that fight, though it was a finish that will help to whittle down a rather large contender pool for middleweight title fights in 2011. Much of the rest of the card, though, was aimed at doing the same thing, but in the lightweight division.

Efrain Escudero removed himself from the title picture via two unfortunate events: not making the contracted weight of 155 pounds and losing to Brazilian prospect Charles Oliveira by submission in their bout. The first circumstance is damning enough: UFC president Dana White has no problem showing his distaste for fighters not making weight. The second was not so much an indication of a poor performance on Escudero’s part as it was a sign that Oliveira may end up being a very special fighter.

Just twenty years old, Oliveira gave a much better account of himself in the standup portion of the bout than what was previously expected, much of which was thanks to his ability to mix in kicks to the body and legs of Escudero during the fight. Someone with the jiu-jitsu of Oliveira can kick with relative impunity, since being taken down is not such a bad proposition for them, and Oliveira took full advantage of that fact during the fight.

The fight-ending rear naked choke was a thing to behold: Escudero scrambled to get off the ground and Oliveira deftly leaped onto Escudero’s back as he did, trapping one of Escudero’s arms with his leg and applying a rear naked choke almost instantly. Though the choke appeared to be on Escudero’s chin, the fighter chose to tap out from a standing position, and Oliveira celebrated a hard-fought win against a tough opponent. Oliveira was also given a $40,000 submission of the night bonus for his technical savvy.

Meanwhile, fellow lightweight Jim Miller added his name to the shortlist of lightweight title contenders with a somewhat surprising win over Gleison Tibau. Miller is certainly no slouch, but Tibau is exactly the kind of fighter who gives him fits. Still, Miller controlled the bout throughout with solid wrestling and good striking. He rocked Tibau more than once while regularly finding a home for his straight left hand on Tibau’s jaw. To reward his efforts, the judges gave him a unanimous decision.

Yet another lightweight bout featured Ross Pearson against Cole Miller, with many favoring Pearson for his ability to strike and keep the fight standing. However, Miller did a better job of controlling range and scoring points on his feet than many had expected (including myself), and was able to use his outstanding submission acumen to finish Pearson by rear naked choke in the second round.

The preliminary bouts were absolutely filled with decisions, as Yves Edwards, Jared Hamman, Tomasz Drwal, Rich Attonito and Anthony Waldburger all won via the judges’ scorecards. They defeated John Gunderson, Kyle Kingsbury, Dave Branch, Rafael Natal and David Mitchell, respectively. Kingsbury did get some good news for his efforts against Hamman- the two were picked for fight of the night honors, each earning a $40,000 bonus as a result.

The other $40,000 bonus went to Brian Foster, who defeated Forrest Petz by TKO just one minute and seven seconds into round one of their contest. Miller also got a $40,000 bonus for submission of the night honors, meaning that he and Oliveira share the honor for UFC Fight Night 22.

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Tags: Brian Foster, Charles Oliveira, Cole Miller, Efrain Escudero, Gleison Tibau, Jared Hamman, Jim Miller, Kyle Kingsbury, Nate Marquardt, Ross Pearson, Rousimar Palhares, UFC, UFC Fight Night 22