Author: By Thomas Gerbasi

As the crowd at Boston’s TD Garden roared for their favorite son, Joe Lauzon, last August, the rising lightweight star almost knew that his first round victory over Gabe Ruediger was going to be a hard one to follow.

For 121 dominant seconds at UFC 118, Lauzon, simply put, did everything right. And if you want to go with the cliché that Ruediger never had a chance, you would probably be accurate, as “J-Lau” delivered the best performance of his UFC career, and he did it at home, no less.

How do you top that? Lauzon wondered the same thing.

“My whole career, I’ve been constantly looking for ways to get better, and how do I really improve on a fight like Ruediger,” he asks. “I go in there, I hit him a couple times, I threw him on the ground, I was all over him on the ground, I flung him around, I beat him up, and I got his arm. After the fight with Ruediger, where do you really go? Obviously everything always needs improvement, but there was no glaring weakness.”

Luckily for Lauzon, George Sotiropoulos got him back on track, and though the New Englander wound up with a second round submission loss on his record last November at UFC 123 thanks to the Aussie contender, now he knew where the holes were and he could move forward.

If it sounds like a crazy concept, it’s not. It makes perfect sense because no one goes back to the drawing board and picks themselves apart after a win. In this sport, it’s the losses that make you better, and if Lauzon one day holds a UFC championship, he will look back at Sotiropoulos, and not Ruediger, as the fight that was the turning point.

But back to Detroit, and a fight Lauzon looked like he was on his way to winning after the first five minutes.

“I thought that was my best fight boxing-wise,” he said. “I honestly felt like I couldn’t miss during the fight and I thought I showed some good improvement there. I paced myself pretty good in the first round as well, and I don’t think that the pace that I pushed was what really did me in,” said Lauzon. “I felt good at the end of the first round and in between rounds I felt okay.”

Then it was time for round two.

“I went to step off the stool and my legs felt like concrete. Then I knew I was in trouble. Everything we had been doing was working on the jab and beating him to the punch, and those things rely on me moving my feet and getting in and out and moving around the ring. So I knew I couldn’t keep that same gameplan and it was definitely not a good feeling at all, especially since I saw him at the end of the first and he was completely broken. He just looked like he was done.”

Sotiropoulos was far from done though, and at 2:43 of the second stanza, Lauzon tapped out to a kimura. It was a disappointing defeat, his second in three fights, but while the 27-year old probably picked apart his mistakes for days and weeks, just by getting off the stool for round two when he had nothing left, he showed what it means to be a fighter.

“You just gotta push on,” he said. “In training we do a lot of shark bait stuff, which is basically designed to make you feel like crap and to train you to keep pushing, even when you’re exhausted. You’re always a little bit slower, and you’re always not quite as strong. It’s kinda like blindly rushing in when you know things aren’t gonna go well. You’re completely exhausted and you really just don’t have anything to offer, but you’re still gonna try. It’s tough, but you have to do it. There’s no other choice. You’re there to fight and that’s what you do. There’s no time outs. And maybe I get knocked out, but I’m gonna go out there and try and get it done.”

Since then, Lauzon has been working his cardio “like crazy,” along with the other aspects of his game to get ready for Sunday’s bout against England’s Curt Warburton. But the work just doesn’t take place in the Lauzon MMA gym. For him, fighting is a 24/7 job, even when he’s not on the card.

“It’s pretty tough for me to be a fan,” he laughs. “I’m always looking for things and comparing what other people are doing with what I would do. So it’s pretty tough for me to sit back and enjoy a fight because I’m constantly analyzing stuff. And I’m always trying to get better too. I’m real good at picking up habits on the ground, and I’m really trying to pick up on things by watching standup stuff now. Boxing came really, really slow to me, and that’s one thing I’ve been really focusing on and trying to get better at, because for jiu-jitsu, I pay very close attention, and I’m very analytical. But for boxing, I was never like that, so I’m really working on getting better at.”

So don’t expect him to be screaming “elbow” from the cheap seats on fight night.

“I do enjoy analyzing and breaking things down, but I think a lot of people are sitting back and just waiting for someone to get hit in the chin and go down, and that’s definitely not me.”

In Warburton, Lauzon will be facing a fighter short on UFC experience, but long on talent and potential. “The War” is 1-1 in the Octagon, with a close decision loss to Spencer Fisher last October and a points win over Maciej Jewtuszko in February. Needless to say, Lauzon has a scouting report on him.

“I think he’s tough,” said Lauzon. “He seems like more of a kickboxer than anything, he’s very comfortable in the clinch and he looks like he’s got that wiry, tendon, wrestler-strength. I feel like he’s not necessarily gonna move me around, but slow me down, and that can be tough to deal with sometimes, even though with the exception of Manny Gamburyan, I haven’t felt that anyone I fought in the UFC has been stronger than me. And even though I don’t look that strong, I feel much stronger than I look, but I might not have that advantage this time around. So we’re working on trying to be quick, beating him to the punch, and all that kinda stuff.”

Just don’t expect Lauzon to be sniffing out a fourth Fight of the Night award this weekend.

“Back and forth fights are good, but the way that I impress the people the most is when I put on a fight like the Ruediger fight,” he said. “I show what I’m gonna do, and it doesn’t really matter who’s out there with me. If I go out there and blast through people, people are gonna remember and enjoy the fight. As a competitor, that’s how I’m picturing the fight – I go out there, dominate the fight, push through, and do what I want to do. I don’t want people to see that he’s good. I don’t want the fight to go his way whatsoever the entire time. The people who didn’t know him before, I don’t want them to know him after the fight either, because Fight of the Night may be nice, but that means it’s back and forth and it’s a super tough fight. I don’t want that. I want to control and dominate.”

And if he has to walk through fire, that’s fine too, because he’s expecting a war from Warburton. That doesn’t mean he can’t try to repeat the Ruediger fight. This time though, expect a better follow-up from a young man who doesn’t specialize in making the same mistake twice.

“He (Warburton) is really, really tough, and I don’t expect an easy fight whatsoever,” said Lauzon. “I expect a really, really tough fight, but at the same time, I’m gonna come out guns blazing and try to put him away.”

The two years before Rich Attonito turned to mixed martial arts were good years in a culinary sense, 24 months filled with, as he puts it, “eating a lot of pasta and lifting a lot of weights. I was probably 220 pounds and I looked like I could run through a wall.”

So why not put all that bulk to the test? He had been a competitor practically all his life, wrestling throughout high school and at Hofstra University, and now he was ready for a new challenge. So he went to the gym, began training in boxing and jiu-jitsu, and six months later he was stopping Mike Mitchell in less than two and a half minutes.

He had found a new athletic home. More than seven years later, Attonito has survived reality TV, made it into the UFC, and on Sunday in Pittsburgh, he will step into the Octagon for the first time as a welterweight.

That’s a lot of water, 13 pro fights, and 50 pounds under the bridge, but the way he sees it, to be at his best and to compete against the elite, he needed to find his optimum weight, and he believes 170 is it.

“It was on the table and being discussed for quite a while, a couple years actually,” said Attonito of the drop from middleweight to welterweight. He had gone just 3-2 at 205 pounds from 2004-05, then met his greatest success at 185 pounds, but after going 2-0 in his first two UFC bouts, he dropped a three round decision to Dave Branch in December of last year and decided that it was time to move.

“When I was fighting at middleweight, everything was good, so there was no reason to drop at that point,” he said. “I thought that maybe when I got into the big show and that pay was a lot more, obviously then it would be worth more of my time and commitment to deal with the drop. Even after the fight with (Jamie) Yager and the fight with Rafael Natal, me and my coaches sat down and talked about it, but we decided to keep going forward at middleweight. But then, I came upon my first loss in the UFC against Dave and after that fight, it was the appropriate time to try to make the move, having incurred a setback. And also in that fight as well, I did kinda feel a little undersized, so it definitely encouraged me to make the move down.”

Now came the fun part, altering the entire lifestyle you had been accustomed to for years to fit into a 170-pound body. But Attonito, a former personal trainer, used his knowledge from that field, the years of discipline picked up from wrestling, and a three month headstart to make the move to welterweight as painless as possible.

“For me it was wrestling in high school and college that helped because you have to make weight all during the season,” he said. “You have to have that prolonged discipline in your diet and making weight a couple times a week for matches, and that experience in the past really makes it not that horrible. It’s just a matter of setting your mind to it and knowing why you’re doing it. I want to be at my best and to be at the elite level in the UFC, I need to be my best. I always ate very healthy; there were just certain liberties I had to cut out. It’s few and far between when it comes to eating big pasta dinners and having a few desserts here and there.”

It doesn’t hurt being 34 years old and having a more “big picture” look as well.

“I think with maturity and age comes wisdom, so that helps,” he agrees. “I also need to look at things realistically and you need to be honest with yourself. I could fool myself and say, I’ll never make 170, but that’s because I don’t want to give up the liberties I have when I fight at ’85 from a lifestyle perspective. But what kind of reason is that? If you’re doing something to be the best you can be at it, you need to be a hundred percent. For me, it was a clear cut decision, it was the time to do it, and I feel like I have the wisdom and the knowledge, thankfully through my fitness background and my education in the nutritional field, that I can put myself on the right diet to lose the weight.”

As for his headstart, Attonito walked and trained at the middleweight limit to get his body acclimated to the new weight, and after a rough first few weeks, it was smooth sailing, and he can feel the difference as he prepares for his Sunday bout against Daniel Roberts in Pittsburgh.

“I think my transitions have gotten a lot smoother and faster,” he said. “My energy level and endurance has improved dramatically just from being 20 pounds lighter. Before I would walk around at like 205 and train at 205, and I was still in good shape, but through dieting and everything, I’ve leaned out, and now everything on me is complete quality, and it’s immediately improved my endurance and my athleticism, I’m faster, and I can bring everything together more effectively.”

It’s a new day for Attonito and a lot of his peers who have decided that bigger is not necessarily better. So the years of giving up 10-20 pounds to opponents on fight night are over. Now it’s a level playing field, and the way “The Raging Bull” sees it, time to show what he can really do in the Octagon.

“You definitely gotta be ready to step out and perform at your highest level when you get out there because you’re amongst the elite athletes in the sport,” he said. “Being in the UFC, you’ve got to step your game up, and you’re going to be under a lot of critical eyes that are watching you, and it’s time to go have fun, but it’s also time to take care of business and do what it is that you train to do all the time. It’s time to put up or shut up, and anything can happen on any given night, so if you don’t perform well, there could be consequences with it, and if you do perform well, there can be a lot of benefits.”

And winning solves everything.  

Tyson Griffin was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but he held it, knowing how the fight game is. He had just finished a three round bout with Nik Lentz at UFC 123 last November, and it appeared that his two fight losing streak was about to become a thing of the past.

But the judges disagreed, awarding Lentz a split decision victory in one of the more controversial verdicts of 2010. Griffin, well aware of the perils of leaving his fate in the hands of outside arbiters, was still stunned.

“That night it was heartbreaking,” he said. “You leave it all out there, you fight hard, you think you win, and then the rug gets pulled out from underneath you and you land on your butt and wonder ‘what happened, what did I do wrong?’ You try and look at everything but you really can’t blame yourself and you can’t even really blame the judges I guess. So you just gotta move on, pick everything up and move forward.”

It’s a classy move, taking the high road after an experience like that, and it’s a wise one as well, because sitting on a decision like that can only drive you crazy after a while. But losses like the one to Lentz will always hurt more, and it’s not just because you know that it was only a razor-thin margin that kept you from getting your hand raised, but because it now affects more than your win-loss record.

“It definitely hurts you,” said Griffin. “It affects your sponsorships, it affects your place in your next fight – whether you’re main card or not – and it affects your money that night.  So it definitely affects you financially and business wise, both that night and in the future.”

“I rewatched the fight maybe once,” he continues, “and I definitely think I won. I could see how you could give Lentz a round, but I definitely felt the first and third were my rounds.”

Yet like he said, it was time to move on and put a forgettable 2010 to the side forever. It was a year in which Griffin went from being a prime time player in the title picture at 155 pounds to getting hit with a three fight losing streak that put his future in jeopardy. But he doesn’t look at 2010 as 0-3 and nothing else. He sees it as the year in which he graduated from the school of fistic hard knocks.

“Personally and fight wise, it was a maturing year,” he said. “I had a lot of time to think in that time and this year too with my knee surgery and all that, but over the last couple of years I’ve been learning about myself and I’ve grown as a person and realized what I want out of this sport. It’s almost like I was in fight college for a few years and now I’ve got my degree and I know what I want to do and I know what direction I want to take my career in.”

And his aim is clear – to win a world title. Only now, his sights are set not on former opponent Frankie Edgar, but featherweight boss Jose Aldo, as he makes his move 10 pounds south, beginning with a Sunday bout in Pittsburgh against Manny Gamburyan.

“My goal right now is to climb to the top of the featherweight division and get that belt,” said Griffin. “I’m more hungry now as a fighter, and more focused on fighting now than I’ve ever been. I’ve always enjoyed fighting and it was fun and it paid the bills, but now it’s more about personal goals and reaching my peak as an athlete and being the best fighter I can be.”

It’s not the first time Griffin has been here, as he began his career at featherweight, most notably beating future WEC champion Urijah Faber in 2005. But a lot has gone on since then, both good and bad, leaving questions as to why Griffin would make the move now, after three losses. But as he explains, it was a move that was planned before the Lentz fight.

“I had my manager talk to (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva before that fight,” said Griffin. “It would have been nice to move down with a win so it didn’t look like I was running from the weight class, but it was just a natural progression over the years. I learned more about diet and nutrition and I actually cut down to around ‘52 for a few fights there and just got smaller naturally by eating right and eating better. So once the UFC brought that (featherweight division) over, it seemed like a natural move for me. And everyone always says it’s my first fight at ’45, but I fought Urijah at ‘45 back in the day, so I’ve been there before and I just know more now, and it should work out a lot easier.”

Easy? Not usually the word you associate with a drop in weight class, but Griffin is remarkably cool and pleasant in the time before his first UFC bout at 145 pounds.

“It (the weight cut) hasn’t affected my quality of life at all,” he said. “I’ve been eating good, eating healthy, and when you eat healthy and have a lot of fruits and vegetables, you can actually eat more volume. I don’t know how everybody else does it, but I don’t calorie count; I can’t do that, my brain just doesn’t work that way (Laughs), and my body doesn’t either. So if I’m hungry I’m gonna eat something good and healthy and keep my body full of energy. Mainly, I’ve just upped my training and I’ve been working out a lot harder and a lot more.”

And when it comes to dealing with the specter of a three fight losing streak over his head going into the Gamburyan fight, he’s not letting that dictate the way he trains and feels in the days leading up to the bout.

“It’s a fresh start,” he said. “I’m not really worried about winning or losing, and that’s something that comes from competing over the years. I hate losing, of course, but I’m not focusing on not losing; I’m focusing on doing what I’ve been working on, fighting hard and having a good fight. With all that going down good, I should win and it shouldn’t be an issue.”

The fans haven’t left his side either, making it clear that all those Fight of the Night awards he won over the years haven’t been forgotten. But as the 27-year old explains, there were times when he forgot what it took to get to that point when he was picking up bonus checks for fights against Edgar, Clay Guida, Thiago Tavares, Sean Sherk, and Rafael dos Anjos.

“I think through all those Fight of the Nights and having my bills paid, I kinda took for granted the situation I was in and kinda got a little lazy,” he said. “I wasn’t always in the gym and learning and progressing with the sport and being the best fighter I could be. I think I started just training for my fights when I had a fight two months away and it got me in a little bit of a slump. I wasn’t really having too much fun with fighting. Now I’m having fun again and I’ve rededicated myself to the sport.”

A key motivator is getting a test and a title shot against Aldo.

“Seeing Aldo fight and his style, that was the one thing that kinda motivated me,” he said. “I always liked the standup game and had fun with it, and that’s a challenge that would be fun for me. I think I can beat Aldo standing, but at the same time, I’m getting back to my roots in training and training everywhere all the time instead of just doing what I like to do.”

But before he can think of Aldo, he has to deal with “The Anvil,” and he doesn’t have an easy out in front of him in Gamburyan, who has won three of four fights since jumping to featherweight himself. But that’s just what Griffin wants. And expects.

“He’s a tough guy,” said Griffin of the Ultimate Fighter season five finalist and former WEC title challenger. “He’s got knockout power, he swings hard and fights hard, he’s always in good shape and that’s what I want. I don’t want any easy fights, I never really had any, and it’s awesome to get someone who fought for the title, a contender, in my first fight at 145, and I’m looking to make a statement when I fight Manny. I want to dominate him and beat him convincingly.”

The staredowns, the loosening of his wrists before a fight, the berserker fighting style. If you don’t know who we’re talking about at this point, you’ve apparently reached the wrong website. But on July 2nd, all true fight fans will be celebrating the return of “The Axe Murderer,” Wanderlei Silva, as he takes on Chris “The Crippler” Leben at UFC 132 in Las Vegas.

This middleweight showdown has the potential to be one of the most memorable slugfests of the year, and one look at the biggest moments of Silva’s remarkable career will let you know why.

Mike Van Arsdale – August 23, 1998 – IVC 6
Result – Silva KO1
The bare knuckle IVC fights in Brazil were no joke, and when the 4-1 Silva met standout US wrestler Mike Van Arsdale (then 4-0, with 1 UFC victory) in 1998, it was a pretty big deal for hardcore fight fans.  The bout was competitive early on, with Van Arsdale working well from inside Silva’s guard.  But after Silva worked his way back to his feet, he pounced, nailing Van Arsdale with a knee that hurt him.  As the American backpedaled, Silva threw him to the canvas and ended matters with a soccer kick to the head. For all intents and purposes, this was the birth of “The Axe Murderer”.

Tito Ortiz – April 14, 2000 – UFC 25
Result – Ortiz W5
Less than two months after beating Van Arsdale, Silva made his UFC debut and was blitzed in 44 seconds by “The Phenom”, Vitor Belfort. The loss propelled him to a six fight winning streak that included wins over Eugene Jackson, Daijiro Matsui and “Dirty” Bob Schrijber in such diverse organizations as the UFC, IVC, and PRIDE.  In April of 2000, he was brought back to the UFC to fight Tito Ortiz for the 205-pound championship, and though the fight was far from memorable, it was the bout that forced Silva to re-evaluate his career and where he was heading with it.  As he said in 2007, “My last fight in UFC in Japan with Tito, it was a very small show,” remembered Silva. “And after the fight with him I didn’t have an event. I didn’t go back to PRIDE, I didn’t fight anymore in UFC, and in my mind, I thought, ‘I’m finished.’ I changed from PRIDE to UFC, but I lost.”

Guy Mezger – August 27, 2000 – PRIDE 10
Result – Silva KO1
A veteran of the UFC and Pancrase organizations, Guy Mezger was no stranger to fight fans both in Japan and the United States, and definitely not one to be intimidated by the 24-year old Silva, who wasn’t yet the international superstar we all know today. And early on, it looked like Mezger was going to add Silva to his victims’ list, but the Brazilian was relentless in his pursuit. And one thing opponents quickly find out about Silva is that getting out of the way of the first three haymakers means nothing if the fourth hits you, and that’s what happened to Mezger, as it took only one right hand to erase all his previous good work and send him on the way to a KO defeat at 3:45 of the first round.

Dan Henderson I – December 9, 2000 – PRIDE 12
Result – Silva W3
Unbeaten as a pro at the time, Dan Henderson was expected to add Silva to his resume, especially since he was coming off wins over Gilbert Yvel, “Minotauro” Nogueira and Babalu Sobral on the same night in February of 2000. But Silva was not to be denied in what turned out to be a memorable war. Silva dropped Henderson early, but then Hendo returned the favor, cutting Silva in the process. By the end of the first round though, Silva was back in control and Henderson looked like he was on his way out. Of course, Henderson would come back to be competitive, but it was Silva who remained on top of his game in this fight, as he scored the hard-fought decision victory.

Kazushi Sakuraba I – March 25, 2001 – PRIDE 13
Result – Silva TKO1
Following his exciting wins over Mezger and Henderson, Silva finally arrived with a 98 second demolition of Japanese superstar Kazushi Sakuraba that made headlines in the Land of The Rising Sun. Sakuraba, with wins over four Gracies (Royce, Renzo, Royler, and Ryan) was at the top of his game, and he even sent Silva to a knee briefly with a right to the head. But Silva was just too big and strong for Sakuraba, and he ended the bout with a vicious display of kicks and knees. From that point on, Silva would go on to dominate PRIDE. Some say Sakuraba was never the same again.

Kazushi Sakuraba III– August 10, 2003 – PRIDE Total Elimination 2003
Result – Silva KO1
Following the first Silva fight, Sakuraba rebounded with a submission win over raw newcomer Quinton Jackson and then was tossed in with the Brazilian again, this time getting halted at the end of the first round due to a broken collarbone in a PRIDE middleweight (205 pound) title fight. Saku would go 1-2 in his next three fights, but the ‘what if’s surrounding the rematch with Silva got him a third match with him. This time “The Axe Murderer” made sure there wouldn’t be a fourth meeting, as he scored an emphatic knockout of Sakuraba in the first round of the PRIDE 2003 middleweight Grand Prix.

Quinton Jackson I – November 9, 2003 – PRIDE Final Conflict 2003
Result – Silva TKO1
Silva’s second win in the Grand Prix was over Olympic Gold medal winner (in Judo) Hidehiko Yoshida, and he eagerly hoped that his next opponent that night in the tournament final would be UFC star Chuck Liddell. Unfortunately for him, Liddell was beaten by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, setting up an equally intriguing Silva vs Jackson match. And it lived up to expectations, but it was Silva emerging victorious after a series of some of the most devastating knee strikes you will ever see in the sport. In watching it again, the biggest surprise is how Jackson was able to stay in the fight as long as he did after Silva began his ferocious finishing assault.

Quinton Jackson II – October 31, 2004 – PRIDE 28
Result – Silva KO2
Many chalked up Silva’s first win over Jackson as a product of “Rampage” not having the cardio to give his best effort after his grueling fight with Liddell earlier the same night. There would be no such excuses the second time around, and Jackson fought well in the first round of the bout. In the second though, it was all Silva, and after a punch rocked the American, a series of knees finished him off in emphatic fashion. Three years after the rematch, I asked Silva if there was still bad blood. “No change, I don’t like him,” said Silva of Jackson. “I’m a professional, but for me, fighting with him is not business, it’s pleasure.” Jackson would get on the board in their third fight though, as he knocked Silva out in their UFC 92 bout.

Mark Hunt – December 31, 2004 – PRIDE Shockwave 2004
Result – Hunt W3
The fight wasn’t one for the time capsule, but as far as being the perfect display of what kind of warrior Silva is, you don’t need to look any further than this bout against 280-pound Mark Hunt. Silva took the bout with no reservations, despite the fact that he was being outweighed by over 70 pounds and was facing a fighter with a granite chin and fists to match. And in the end, it almost went Silva’s way, as he only lost his four year winning streak via split decision. Some fighters talk about fighting anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Silva does it.

“The guy who is serious and who fights with his heart is a warrior,” he said. “There are guys who fight only for the money or for the win or to take pictures, and I’m not like that. I like to fight, it’s my job, and I fight with my heart every time.”

Chuck Liddell – December 29, 2007 – UFC 79
Result – Liddell W3
It took years and numerous starts and stops for Silva to finally meet up with future UFC hall of famer Chuck Liddell, but when they did in the final show of 2007, they lived up to all expectations, battling it out tooth and nail for three rounds, with Liddell emerging victorious via unanimous decision.  Regardless of the result, this was one of those fights where you just got a smile on your face every time both Silva and Liddell planted their feet and started exchanging blows.  It made you proud to be a mixed martial arts fan.

Keith Jardine – May 24, 2008 – UFC 84
Result – Silva KO1
For some fighters, like Silva, wins and losses really don’t matter.  You would pay to watch guys like him hit the pads and not regret it.  But when it comes down to business, three losses in a row, even if they’re to Liddell, Dan Henderson, and Mirko Cro Cop, makes a fighter hard to market.  So the pressure was on Silva in May of 2008 when he took on Keith Jardine, a fighter who already had wins over Liddell and Forrest Griffin under his belt.  But on this spring night in Vegas, the old “Axe Murderer” returned with a 36 second blitz that electrified the crowd at the MGM Grand and rejuvenated Silva’s career.  It was like 2003-2004 all over again.

Michael Bisping – February 21, 2010 – UFC 110
Result – Silva W3
The destruction of Jardine was followed by back-to-back losses against Jackson and Rich Franklin, so a change was in order for Silva, and for the veteran, it was a drop to the middleweight division. His first assignment? British superstar Michael Bisping. And though Bisping fought well and kept it close, two near-finishes of “The Count” were enough to convince the judges that Silva had earned the three round unanimous decision, and in the process a career resurrection. Now he’ll look to keep the momentum going against Leben on July 2nd.

Longtime contender Nate Marquardt had been a fixture in the UFC middleweight division since his debut in the organization in 2005, but on June 26th in Pittsburgh, he will begin a new chapter in his career in the welterweight class.

But before he begins his assault on the 170-pounders, we’ll recap where “Nate The Great” has been thus far in a memorable MMA run of over a decade.

W2 Shonie Carter – September 24, 2000 – Pancrase 2000 Anniversary Show
Marquardt turned pro in April of 1999, three days before his 20th birthday, and by the end of that year, he was 6-1 and fighting in Japan. It was a whirlwind ride for the youngster, who made an international statement on September 24, 2000 by defeating Kiuma Kunioku and Shonie Carter on the same night to become the first middleweight King of Pancrase. As Marquardt told me back before his 2001 bout against Gil Castillo, “It was pretty unbelievable.  Actually it was kind of shocking because it was something that I had only dreamed about when I was younger, watching older fighters like Funaki and Shamrock.  It was pretty unbelievable, and it took a few months for it to actually set in that I had won such a big title.”

L5 Gil Castillo – July 18, 2001 – IFC Warriors Challenge 14
Following his win over Carter for the King of Pancrase title, Marquardt fought three more times in Japan before what he hoped to be a triumphant homecoming against unbeaten grappling ace Gil Castillo. It wasn’t meant to be, as Castillo earned a five round split decision win, but it was a memorable battle between two of the best in the world at the time, and reminded US fans that Marquardt was going to be a force to be reckoned with in the future. As for Castillo, the win propelled him into the UFC, where he fought for the middleweight (against Dave Menne) and welterweight (against Matt Hughes) titles. As for Marquardt, it was back to Japan.

W3 Dean Lister – January 25, 2007 – Ultimate Fight Night 8
After the loss to Castillo, Marquardt continued to ply his trade in the Land of the Rising Sun, returning to fight in the States only once over the next four years, a first round win over Steve Gomm in a 2003 IFC match. In Pancrase, he certified himself as a star, with wins over the likes of future PRIDE standout Kazuo Misaki (twice). But following his May 2005 victory over Izuru Takeuchi, Marquardt vacated the King of Pancrase crown and made his long-awaited signing with the UFC. He won his first three Octagon bouts over Ivan Salaverry, Joe Doerksen, and Crafton Wallace, but didn’t really set the world on fire. His win over Dean Lister did the trick though, as he scored a lopsided victory over the jiu-jitsu wizard that saw him hurt and drop his opponent numerous times throughout the three round scrap. And now with a perfect 4-0 Octagon record, his next fight would be for the title.

TKO by 1 Anderson Silva – July 7, 2007 – UFC 73
By the time Marquardt stepped into the Octagon to face Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title, “The Spider” had wrecked Chris Leben in 49 seconds, did a similar smash-up job on Rich Franklin, and submitted a Jiu-Jitsu black belt in Travis Lutter. Marquardt, who had been around the MMA block more than once, bought into what everyone was saying about the champion, and ten seconds before the end of the first round, he was stopped and sent back to the drawing board. “I started to believe what everyone was saying about how dangerous he was and what a good standup fighter he was,” he told me after the fight. “Looking back, I let everyone’s perception of the fight kinda change my view of the fight as well. I should have just gone out there and fought my fight. I started out that way, and through the fight it kinda changed. To be honest, I believe I’m a better standup fighter than he is and I believe I’m more dangerous than him, and I should have kept that frame of mind the whole fight. And all of a sudden he caught me with a shot right at the end of the round, and instead of attacking I went into defending mode.”

TKO3 Wilson Gouveia – February 21, 2009 – UFC 95
Slowly, but surely, Marquardt fought his way back into the middleweight title picture, submitting Jeremy Horn and stopping Martin Kampmann, with only a controversial decision loss to Thales Leites marring his run. But it was in his third round stoppage of Wilson Gouveia at UFC 95 that the MMA world started to think, ‘hey, I wouldn’t mind seeing Silva-Marquardt II.” And the reason for those sentiments came primarily from Marquardt’s finish of Gouveia, which encompassed a dizzying array of striking techniques that looked like they came straight out of a video game. It was a “new” Nate Marquardt, but as he explained, his in the Octagon mean streak was always there, it just needed a little prodding to make itself seen again. “I think I’ve always had that mean streak in me, and I kinda lost it there for a little while just because certain things changed in the way I was fighting,” he said. “Then the loss to Anderson (Silva) gave me it back.”

KO1 Demian Maia – August 29, 2009 – UFC 102
If the stoppages of Kampmann and Gouveia made people sit up and take notice when it came to Marquardt’s worthiness for a return bout with Anderson Silva, his 21 second blitz of Demian Maia got people stomping their feet for “Nate the Great” to get a rematch. And again, it wasn’t just Marquardt’s physical gifts earning him spectacular victories, it was his renewed mental approach to the game. “It is a sport, but it’s also a fight,” he said. “It’s not a game. You’re out there and you can really get hurt. You could be winning the fight, but at any moment, if you make the wrong move, you can get knocked out or choked out, and vice versa. It doesn’t matter how you’re doing, you’re in there to fight and to finish the guy. For a while, I was looking at it as more of a sport.”

W3 Dan Miller – March 19, 2011 – UFC 128
Following the Maia bout, Marquardt went through a three fight stretch that would have tried the spirit of any fighter, as he sandwiched heartbreaking decision losses in title eliminators against Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami around a first round TKO win over Rousimar Palhares. But instead of moping and wondering what his next step would be, Marquardt returned to the gym with a new passion for the game as he started the road back to the title. “I still love the sport, it’s still my passion, and I’m very blessed and fortunate that it is,” he said. “For this fight especially, I have this renewed passion and motivation to get into the gym and give a hundred percent every day, and that’s what I’ve done for this camp. I really feel like I felt when I was 20 years old and training for fights over in Japan. I feel hungry and I feel like an animal when I’m in the gym.” The recipient of the invigorated Marquardt’s attacks was scheduled to be Yoshihiro Akiyama, but after the tragic earthquake of 2011 devastated Akiyama’s home country, New Jersey scrapper Dan Miller stepped in. It didn’t matter, as Marquardt put together a disciplined three round win in what turned out to be his middleweight swan song. Now it’s off to 170 pounds, where Rick Story awaits on June 26th.

Watch UFC 128 now on ufc.tv: http://www.ufc.tv/ufc/event/shogun-vs-jones/193

To make it to the UFC is hard enough. To stay requires a Spartan work ethic, tremendous skill, and a little luck as well. Welterweight TJ Grant has earned his keep in the Octagon, with six fights in the organization and a seventh against Charlie Brenneman coming up on June 26th in Pittsburgh.

But at 3-3, Grant now seeks the consistency to move from prospect to contender, and he feels that he’s reached the point where everything is starting to come together.

“I feel a lot more mature as a fighter and I’m starting to see what’s going on in the fight,” he said. “Now I’m really able to understand how the fight’s going a lot better in terms of competing and the other little battles, rather than just going out and trying to take the guy’s head off. There are a lot of little battles that go on in the fight that maybe people don’t see, and I’m starting to feel more comfortable in there every single time.”

That’s not to say that he’s got it all figured out, as a win over Julio Paulino last September was followed by a disappointing defeat at the hands of Ricardo Almeida that was a little reminder that there was still work to be done.

“I got taken down early in that fight, I didn’t listen, and the first strike I threw was a leg kick and that was one thing we said,” he recalls. “‘Don’t throw many leg kicks and definitely don’t open up an exchange with a leg kick,’ and that was the first strike I threw in the fight. I started off bad and Almeida’s a great fighter, and I don’t want to take anything away from him. He worked his game, he got me down, and he never let up the pressure. After that fight I kinda realized that I’ve got to be more patient and I also have to improve my wrestling and my conditioning.”

And while he’s attacked the wrestling and conditioning aspects of his training with a renewed vigor in order to tighten up his game, his patience has been tested by the six months he’s been waiting to get back into the Octagon. But after being in the game for more than five years, he knows that not everything will go the way you always want it to, so he’s made good use of his time on the sidelines.

“I’ve had a long time between my last fight and this one, and I’ve really changed up my training,” he said. “Everybody says they’ve had the best training camp every time, but this time I truly believe that I’m by far the best version of myself that I’ve ever seen. I really look forward to getting out there and showing what I’ve been doing and how I’ve been preparing.”

Most importantly, Grant (16-5) wants to erase the memory of the loss to Almeida and begin what he hopes will be his first UFC winning streak. If he’s able to do that, he’ll be able to avoid the inevitable question that plagues any fighter who has lost in the UFC: “is this a must win?”

“I see every fight as a must win in this game,” he said. “This is really huge in my career, and I gotta win. Charlie’s a tough opponent and I’m coming off a loss, and I haven’t really talked about it, but I know what’s at stake here, so I’m getting ready like it’s my last fight and I’ve gotta win.”

Grant, 27, takes such queries with grace, not getting annoyed at what must be the 800th time he’s answered the question. But as they say, inquiring minds want to know…

“It’s just something you’ve got to deal with,” he said. “I don’t let it get to me too much because in the end, that’s what I signed up for and that’s what comes with being a professional fighter. There are highs and lows, you’re only as good as your last fight, but that’s the way it is. Guys are quick to write you off, so you have to have good people around you, keep plugging away every day, and just don’t let it get to you.”

He hasn’t. In fact, you could say that the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia product is living out a dream fighting in the UFC. So though he’s had to weather some storms, he’s still smiling while also realizing that now is the time to make his move if his championship aspirations are to come to fruition.

“I’m enjoying it,” said Grant of life in the UFC. “I love going to fights and I love being a fighter and all that comes along with it. I was able to buy a house in the last year because I’m in the UFC, and I love the opportunity I’m getting. At the same time, I don’t feel like I’m any further in my career than what I was when I started. I really want to get out there and rack up wins and I want to make a statement.”

Even if that statement requires him going into Pennsylvania, the home state of Hollidaysburg’s Brenneman.

“I’ve been the bad guy before,” he said. “It’s not so bad. (Laughs) I’ve been the good guy too. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to fight in Canada, I fought in my hometown, and I’ve been lucky in that department. A lot of guys, like the Ontario fighters for instance, they fight their whole careers on the road. So I’ve been pretty fortunate, and now it’s my turn. I’ve got to take my licks too, but I’m ready to go out there and put on a show for the Pennsylvania fans.”

It might be his last one too when it comes to competing at 170 pounds, as Grant’s extended time off has his body weight down and his mind thinking about a test run at lightweight.

“It’s almost been a blessing in disguise not fighting for this long,” he said. “With all the training, my body weight has gone down, and I feel like I’m at a weight right now where it won’t be the most comfortable cut in the world, but I can make 155 and I feel like it’s something I want to do. But I still feel great at 170. I’ve never really gotten outclassed at 170, but at the same time I want to fight guys that are more my size too.”

The idea of moving does contain a Devil’s bargain though because if he wins and wins impressively against Brenneman, the temptation will be to stay at 170. But that’s a bridge he’ll cross after June 26th. For now, the focus is strictly on winning the little battles and the big war against “The Spaniard” in Pittsburgh, so when you ask him his outlook for the rest of the year, he keeps it short and sweet.

“I’m gonna win.”