Nate Marquardt loving middleweight return after UFC on FOX 17 KO of Dollaway

Man, did Nate Marquardt need a win. And man, did it look good when he got it on Saturday.

Marquardt was mired in a stretch that had seen him lose five of six fights. The rough run started when he was dominated by Tarec Saffiedine to lose his Strikeforce welterweight title at that promotion’s final event, and it mostly got progressively worse.

In his return to the UFC after Strikeforce closed its doors, he suffered first-round knockout losses to Jake Ellenberger and Hector Lombard. But in June 2014, he moved back to middleweight hoping for a fresh start – and the move paid off nicely with a “Performance of the Night” submission of James Te-Huna in New Zealand.

But in 2015, Marquardt’s struggles had continued – until Saturday at UFC on FOX 17. Earlier this year, he dropped a decision to Brad Tavares at UFC 182 and his corner stopped his fight against Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 188 when he was getting too lit up for most people’s liking.

Against C.B. Dollaway on Saturday at Amway Center in Orlando, though, he found success in the form of a Hail Mary of sorts. When Dollaway (15-8 MMA, 9-8 UFC) had Marquardt (34-15-2 MMA, 12-8 UFC) in trouble with a big flurry, Marquardt responded with a right hand to the chin. Dollaway hit the canvas, and a second later, Marquardt was back in the win column.

“It feels great. I’m just really excited,” Marquardt said after the win. “I really believed it. I know I was on a bad run there, but I really feel good in the gym and feel like I could go in there with anyone. Obviously, it came out in the fight today.”

Marquardt said during his slide, people in his inner circle gave up hope in him. But maybe they’ll start to come around after his upset win over Dollaway – Marquardt was the biggest underdog on Saturday’s card.

“A lot of people kind of turned their back on me and stopped believing in me – even close friends from the past,” he said. “It was definitely tough, but it feels so good now.”

A lot of that feeling good may have to do with being back at 185 pounds instead of a full 15 farther down at welterweight. Granted, the return to middleweight happened for his win over Te-Huna – it paid off then, but he still lost in the weight class to Tavares and Gastelum.

But at the very least, the way he feels training may pay dividends on future fight nights.

“For me, it was a downhill spiral being at welterweight,” Marquardt said. “… When you’re dieting and training, you’re not training at 100 percent of your potential. The weight cut the week of the fight, I feel great – and I can see other guys are kind of miserable. … so I definitely feel better at 185.”

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 17, check out the UFC Events section of the site.