At this point, just about every MMA fan in North America is overtly anxious to discover the reasoning behind the fallout centered on Nate Marquardt and the UFC (particularly, president Dana White). What we know, at this point, is extremely limited.
Nate Marquardt was forced out of his scheduled bout with Rick Story just hours before the scheduled weigh-ins for reasons unspecified. We do, at this point, know that Nate had some “issues” with his pre-fight medical exams.
We also know that, whatever the infraction may truly be, it was serious enough to earn walking papers from Dana White, who claims Marquardt, a longtime top-tier competitor and solid draw, disgusted him with his actions.
White asserts that it’s up to Nate to disclose the details of the unfortunate falling out. If all goes well, we’ll hear the truth surface later today, in which Marquardt has a press release slated.
Thus far, we’ve seen some wild ideas surface from the inner workings of the MMA field. Some pretty bold rumors have surfaced as well, but there shouldn’t be too much invested in some of these claims…right?
One interesting tidbit to emerge online is the following bit of information, which was posted on the popular Underground forum, by someone claiming to be close to Nate and his camp.
“Nate held back medical info about an ongoing personal problem/disease. Nate contracted Hep B. Nobody knows how he got it but, he has Hep B and Hep B is not forever, it can be shaken off in time but, everyone is different and heals at a different rate “Look up HEP B for those of you who don’t know what it is or for those of you whom may think it’s forever”. He was supposed to be evaluated by the commission’s Dr’s and he was dodging them until the last minute because he’s embarrassed about his disease. Yes it was wrong but, we all thought he had shaken it. Since he decided to wait till the last minute to get cleared by the Dr’s and was dodging phone calls all the way up to 5 hours before the event is why Dana White is pissed. We hope Dana takes a second look at this and we will continue to have Nate’s back through this tuff situation. Stay tuned tomorrow afternoon to a more in depth response from Nate himself… Sorry guys and thanks. Nate is going nowhere but to the top of the MMA world….”
Those are some serious allegations. While Hepatitis B is curable (acute, not chronic, which is still manageable), it’s a serious health factor. To withhold that kind of information isn’t just potentially dangerous, it’s extremely unprofessional. Embarrassed or not, that’s something that should be brought to the forefront of the situation.
In other interesting news-flow, popular MMA scribe, and well known orthopedic spine surgeon Johnny Benjamin hit his twitter account earlier to unleash this interesting bit of 411:
“UFC Nate Marquardt got suspended. I reviewed the PA medical forms. Most likely cause for the suspension is…Refusal to take drug test!!” – @DrJCBenjamin
Why Benjamin is privy to these medical forms is a bit out of my realm of understanding, but that’s a significant statement that lends credence to the above statement.
Who knows the real truth behind this mind boggling mystery?
We all do, in just hours, if Nate’s scheduled statement goes as planned!
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