UFC Fight Night 96 results: Nate Marquardt's walkoff head-kick KO puts away Tamdan McCrory

PORTLAND, Ore. – It might be best to not write off Nate Marquardt just yet.

Marquardt (35-16-2 MMA, 13-9 UFC) bided his time before taking advantage of his opportunity to put Tamdan McCrory (14-5 MMA, 4-5 UFC) away, finishing the fight with a walkoff head-kick knockout in the second round.

The middleweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 96 event at Moda Center in Portland, Ore. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass ahead of additional prelims on FS2 and a main card on FS1.

McCrory worked a high kick 45 seconds in, then slid away as Marquardt tried to push forward. Marquardt landed an outside leg kick secnods later, then tried to work a few more inside. Ahead of the midway point of the round, Marquardt landed a takedown in the center of the cage. From his back, McCrory tried to work for a submission, but Marquardt scrambled out and got back to McCrory’s full guard. When McCrory kept after it, it allowed Marquardt to briefly get to side control before McCrory recovered to guard.

Marquardt worked jabs and kicks in the second, and stayed mostly out of range of McCrory’s counterstrikes. Two minutes in, McCrory put some serious pressure on with a kick and punch combination, but Marquardt tied him up and tripped him to the canvas. From guard, McCrory controlled Marquardt’s posture and tried for triangle submissions, but with 40 seconds left in the frame, referee John McCarthy stood them back up. And that was what Marquardt needed.

Marquardt staggered McCrory with a right hand over the top. And with “The Barncat” wobbling and stumbling backward, Marquardt launched a left kick that landed flush to McCrory’s chin. McCrory fell backward, and Marquardt had a walkoff knockout with 16 seconds left in the second round.

“A lot of the stuff we trained in the gym happened in the fight,” Marquardt said. “Tamdan was a lot better off his back. I knew he was going to be good off his back, but that guy is a stud there. I was in trouble a cuople times there, but the experience paid off. He wasn’t respecting my takedowns, so he just kept coming forward and I knew I had to unleash the right hand. As soon as I saw he was hurt, I thought I would give him a couple fakes and he’d drop his hands.”

Marquardt got back in the win column after a May knockout loss to Thiago Santos and has won two of his past three. McCrory has lost consecutive fights for the first time in his pro career.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 96 results include:

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 96, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Steven Marrocco contributed to this report on site in Portland.)