Yushin Okami earns UFC title fight with victory over Nate Marquardt
On Saturday 13 November, Yushin Okami secured his first shot at the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight (185lb) championship with a unanimous decision victory over Nate Marquardt
at UFC 122 in Oberhausen Germany.
Before the fight, UFC commentator Joe Rogan stated that, “both guys have been criticized for performances that weren’t exciting in the past and both guys have worked very hard to not ever
do that again.” The fighters obviously did not hear Rogan’s pre-fight hype, as this was one of the more reserved and non-aggressive fights in recent UFC history.
The fighters started the bout by exchanging a few strikes before Okami shot for a takedown that was blocked by Marquardt. Marquardt attempted a guillotine choke as they went to the ground,
but Yushin defended the submission attempt and Marquardt wisely let go of the hold, not wasting energy on a choke that was doing no damage. The fighters remained on the ground and Marquardt again tried to slip another choke in but that attempt failed as well
and Okami gained top position. Marquardt gained his feet only to be tagged by a straight left from Okami who then spent the remainder of the round working a takedown attempt, eventually taking Marquardt to the ground seconds before time expired in the round.
The second round began with the fighters exchanging failed takedown attempts, but a knee to Okami’s midsection allowed Marquardt to get him to the mat. Okami was able to regain his feet
shortly after being taken down. The lack of action began to get to the crowd halfway through the round as they began to boo the fighters. With less than 30 seconds left in the round Marquardt delivered a pretty heavy strike to Okami, but he did not force any
action after stunning Okami, instead choosing to back off and allowing Okami time to recover.
The final round saw Okami controlling the centre of the Octagon, forcing Marquardt to spend most of the rounds backing away from him with his back to the cage. Marquardt was able to take
Okami down, but he did not do any damage after the takedown and Okami regained his feet and went back to striking Marquardt with some light jabs that were landing, but not doing any damage. The fight ended with the fighters exchanging strikes while the crowd
jeered the fighters.
All three judges scored the fight in favour of Okami, who was roughly a 2/1 underdog coming in.
In the post-fight press conference UFC president Dana White pulled no punches when he told
Fighters Only: “I love Nate Marquardt, he’s a great kid, but he didn’t show up tonight.”
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