(“…so yeah, I’d say I’ve been pretty smart with my money.” Photo via CombatLifestyle)
After a December meeting with Paul Daley failed to come together, former UFC contender Nate Marquardt has been re-booked at BAMMA 9 (February 11th, LG Arena; Birmingham, England) against welterweight Yoshiyuki Yoshida. The promotion confirmed the news today. Said BAMMA CEO David Green:
“We are very excited to announce what we believe to be a great headline fight for the fans at BAMMA 9 for the World Welterweight Title. Yoshiyuki Yoshida is a UFC, Bellator, and One FC veteran who comes with notable wins over the likes of Dan Hardy, War Machine and Phil Baroni. Both Yoshiyuki and Nate are very excited about fighting at BAMMA 9 and although we had planned for Nate’s first fight to be in December, we believe it is worth waiting a further 8 weeks for such a great match up.”
The title fight will be Marquardt’s official debut at welterweight, and his first cage-appearance since being pulled off the UFC on Versus 4 main event and fired due to his testosterone levels being too high before the fight. Yoshida has been victorious in his last two fights against Phil Baroni and Ferrid Khedor, which snapped a three-fight losing streak in the UFC and Bellator. He will also be making his promotional debut at BAMMA 9.
And yes, Paul Daley should really be the reigning welterweight champion of BAMMA right now, but he missed weight for a title match against Yuya Shirai in February (blame the sauna), then missed weight again by a full six pounds in his follow-up BAMMA appearance against Jordan Radev in September (blame the BBQ pig ice cream).