The UFC announced it’s arrival in New Zealand with a live show scheduled for June 28th, and the event will feature a middleweight fight between James Te Huna and Nate Marquardt. For Te Huna, it marks his debut as a Middleweight, as he did well as a Lightheavyweight but hit a ceiling and could not overcome the top talent in the division. He dropped his last two fights at 205 to Mauricio Rua and Glover Teixeira. Marquardt has dropped three fights in a row and needs a win just to find a pulse on his UFC career, and he is heading back to Middleweight after a rough 0-3 stint as a 170 lber.
Look for Te Huna to come in the favorite when the lines hit the sport books. Te Huna at 31 is unlikely to progress much in terms of ground technique, but he is a game fighter who hits hard and will be much better suited physically to the competition at 185 lbs. Marquardt will be building himself back up to a Middleweight,and Marquardt is a much more manageable physical match-up for Te Huna than he was getting at 205 lbs.
Roll the clock back about a half dozen years or so, and Marquardt was a top fighter, but PED suspensions a demotion to Strikeforce and a 3-4 overall record in his last 7 fights have left him on the brink of being cut from the roster. Perhaps the drop to 170 lbs affected him in his last 3 outings, and Marquardt will return to form at Middleweight. He owns several quality wins in the weight class and went the distance in losses to Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami. It is likely that he is more suited to this weight class physically, but he has not seemed to get off in his fights with any offense, and if he allows Te Huna to start hitting him, it could be lights out for MArquardt in both the fight and in his career.
