Dan Henderson is not the only middleweight contender who was upset that the UFC wouldn't give him a fight against champion Anderson Silva.Nate Marquardt thought that when he knocked out Demian Maia at UFC 102 he had earned a rematch with Silva, who beat him at UFC 73. And he thought that if the UFC wouldn't give him Silva, it would at least give him Henderson, with the stipulation that the winner of that fight would get Silva. Instead, Vitor Belfort was given the next crack at Silva's belt, Henderson left for Strikeforce, and Marquardt was matched up with Chael Sonnen at UFC 109.
"I thought I would get a title fight or a fight with Henderson, but neither fight was available, so I accepted the fight with Sonnen," Marquardt wrote on his web site. "Honestly I was upset at first. Why should I be fighting a guy that lost to Demian Maia three fights ago?"
Marquardt has a point: After he dispatched Maia, it seems a little strange to give Marquardt a fight with someone who was beaten by Maia.
But if you look at the MMA middleweight rankings, there really wasn't a better option, once the UFC decided to have a Silva vs. Belfort title fight. As long as Henderson and Jake Shields are in Strikeforce, the next-best option for Marquardt is Sonnen. And he seems to understand that.
"After I thought about it a while, I changed my mind," Marquardt wrote. "Sonnen is a great wrestler with decent striking and I don't want to wait to fight."
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