Nate Marquardt scored a first round TKO victory on the main event of UFC Fight Night 22, but Rousimar Palhares accusing him of greasing put a strange ending to the bout. Marquardt talked about his disappointment over this:
“It’s kind of disappointing to have to try and defend yourself over something like that. I’m not a dirty fighter, and I don’t cheat. I don’t grease.”
“I didn’t really know what he was doing, but I saw his hand was kind of pointing toward the ref or something. He took his eyes off me. Once he took his eyes off me, that’s when I jumped in… I guess I was surprised, but at the same time, I was watching him the whole time for an opening. That was it… I was very excited for the win, but that kind of took a little bit of it out of it for me.”
Nate commented on the probable reason for Palhares’ complaint:
“Basically, I believe what happened was I had a good sweat going before the fight. He felt as I turned out of the ankle lock that it slipped a little bit, and he felt that I had greased or something, so I’m sure he was a little upset”
His teammate, Brian Stann has an even more interesting take on twitter (which Nate said he doesn’t do):
Try to leg lock a girl with fresh shaved legs, much easier to slide out
Either way, Palhares’ complaint, and getting knocked out for it, was all for nothing because the athletic commission and the referee checked Nate properly:
“After the fight, [Palhares] was complaining. He thought I had something slippery on my legs. The referee, Herb Dean, wiped my legs with a paper towel. He said he was going to wait for the sweat to dry, and then if there was grease left over, it would leave a mark. There was nothing left over. Also, the commissioner came over and with his bare hand checked my legs and said that I was good to go.”
UPDATE: Rousimar Palhares apologizes for his false accusation:
“I’m very sorry for the accusations I made. Nate Marquardt did not cheat in any way, and I’m very sorry to him and his team for my actions in the fight… I congratulate Nate on his win. I learned another lesson for my career in the fight, and I apologize to Nate, his team and the UFC for any issues I contributed to. Nate is not a dirty fighter, and I was wrong to accuse him of cheating in any way.”
About the author
