Former UFC middleweight contender Nate ‘The Great’ Marquardt, and his manager from Alchemist MMA Lex McMahon, are currently guests on The MMA Hour this afternoon to discuss the events from this past weekends UFC on Versus 4 card. Marquardt was suspended by the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission the day of the weigh-ins with little explanation, and was subsequent released by the UFC.
As a guest on the MMAFighting.com program, with host Ariel Helwani, Marquardt announced that he has been suffering from low levels of testosterone and had been suffering symptoms since last August. His symptoms included memory issues and low levels of energy. Thinking that it may be something else such as cancer or mono, Marquardt sought professional help and discovered that he had been suffering from low levels of testosterone.
Marquardt noted that he had been taking the therapy leading up to his last fight against Dan Miller at UFC 128 in March. He applied for, and received, a therapeutic-use exemption from the New Jersey commission for the use of testosterone hormone replacement therapy.
After the fight, he was asked by the commission to stop taking therapy for eight weeks to determine if he did in fact have low T levels, which brought him up to three weeks prior to last Sunday’s scheduled bout with Rick Story.
It was determined, once again, that he was having issues with low T-levels and his doctor recommended he go on an aggressive replacement therapy to ready him for the June 26 bout. Marquardt noted that after a week of going back on therapy, a blood test showed that his T-levels were very high and his doctor pulled him off the therapy, which leads us up to this past weekend.
Up to, and including weigh-in day, Marquardt’s blood test showed testosterone levels higher than what the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission considered within a normal range, but those levels had been dropping consistently over those couple of weeks. ‘The Great’ noted that his levels were almost normal on the day of the weigh-ins but still did not meet the requirements so the PSAC put him on immediate suspension.
On fight day, a blood test showed that his T-levels were within the normal range, and have stayed within those limits after subsequent tests, including one Tuesday morning.
Marquardt says that he has met the PSAC’s requirements and that the commission will sit later this week to discuss lifting his suspension.
During the entire interview Marquardt appeared broken up about the whole situation, feeling bad that he let down his family, friends, and fans over the whole situation.
His manager, McMahon, noted that his fighter has already received several offers from many different promotions and that Marquardt will be back fighting again soon.
The entire situation is similar to that of former welterweight contender Chael Sonnen, except that Marquardt has been very open about the situation with the UFC and all of the commissions he’s had to deal with.