UFC 122 preview: Nate Marquardt vs Yushin Okami
The main event of UFC 122 presents two fighters with similar career paths, but very different fighting styles, as two long-time Ultimate Fighting Championships middleweight (185lb) contenders Yushin “Thunder”
Okami and Nate “The Great” Marquardt get set to square off on Saturday 13 November in Germany.
The fight will be broadcast via tape delay on cable television network Spike TV in North America, and the winner of this tilt will get a shot at belt, currently held by Anderson “The Spider” Silva.
These two are long-time veterans of both MMA and the UFC. Okami is 25-5, having fought in the who’s who of promotions, including K-1, Pancrase and Pride before joining up with the UFC, where he holds a 9-2
record. Marquardt, two years older at 31, is 30-9-2 and fought for many organisations, but truly dominated in Pancrase before coming to the UFC, where he is 9-3, including a loss in a title match to Silva.
Both these men have seen title runs derailed in the UFC by losses. Most recently, both men suffered losses to Chael Sonnen, who beat Okami and then Marquardt in successive fights.
But while they have many similarities, their fighting styles are quite different. Marquardt’s best weapon is his stand-up, which has claimed multiple victims in the Octagon. He packs huge power in his fists
and can throw together some beautiful, flashy, yet effective combinations that have led to highlight-reel victories over Martin Kampmann, Wilson Gouveia, Demian Maia and most recently, Rousimar Palhares.
He also possesses a very good grappling game, which has seen him avoid submissions from top-level submission experts like Thales Leites and Palhares.
Meanwhile, “flashy” is hardly what most fans use to describe Okami’s style. In fact, his fights had previously been so boring that it was seen as a major deterrent to him earning high-profile fights and a
title shot. He uses a dominant wrestling game, and is a master of shutting down his opponents. Able to take his opponents down more often than not, Okami then usually holds them down and beats them up. In his last two fights though, Okami has greatly improved
his boxing, scoring knockdowns on both Lucio Linhares and Mark Munoz.
Style breakdown, odds and prediction
Marquardt’s striking prowess and athleticism have him as the favourite for this one, as he comes in as roughly 5/11 favourite, while Okami pays out around 7/4 as the underdog.
The big question will be whether Okami can take Marquardt down. If he can’t, then he could be in serious trouble on the feet. On the other hand, Marquardt looked so worried in his last fight against Palhares
about the take-down his stand-up looked off, and he only won due to a bizarre finish where Palhares was looking away to the referee to accuse Marquardt of illegally greasing himself when Marquardt leaped in to knock him out.
Marquardt holds a slight advantage overall in this one, but it may be worth betting a few dollars on Okami because of the better odds.
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