UFC on Versus 4: Nate Marquardt vs. Rick Story, a Head-to-Toe Breakdown

This match up is a big one for the welterweight division.

The UFC is having a hard time finding fighters who they can market as legitimate contenders for George St. Pierre (as evidenced by the fact that GSP's next opponent, Nick Diaz, has never beat a top 10 opponent).

Whoever wins this fight will be taking a big step towards title contention.

Rick Story has been slowly carving out his mark in the welterweight division for some time now and is finally getting the recognition he deserves after defeating Thiago Alves less than a month ago.

Nate Marquardt is brand new to the welterweight division, but he has been a top-five fighter in the UFC's middleweight division for a long time.

The winner of this fight is not guaranteed a title shot, but they would likely be no more than one fight away from it.

Let's see how these two match up...

Experience

This one goes to Marquardt, without question.

He has been fighting professionally since 1999. He has fought for the middleweight title and headlined pay-per-views.

Story has been around for a while, too, but he is not used to the same level of spotlight that Nate is used to, or the quality of opposition.

Advantage: Nate Marquardt

Cardio

I'm going to have to go with Story for this one.

Nate usually has pretty great cardio, but this is his first time fighting at welterweight. His body looked ripped at middleweight, so I imagine this is going to be a very difficult weight cut for Nate.

Rick Story fought just a few weeks ago, so he was already in excellent shape when he agreed to this fight.

Cardio might actually be Story's biggest advantage in this fight. As a fighter, he's not as technically skilled as Nate, but if he can push the pace and wear Marquardt down his chances of victory should go up significantly.

Advantage: Rick Story

Striking

Story is not known for his striking. He does okay on the feet, but his striking is mostly used to set up takedowns. In the third round of his fight with Thiago Alves, we saw what happens to Story when he faces an elite striker and can't get the fight to the ground.

Marquardt is not quite an elite striker, but he is very good. He owns a knockout victory of Demian Maia, as well as a TKO victory over respected kick boxer Martin Kampmann.

If Rick can't get this fight to the ground, he is going to be in a lot of trouble.

Advantage: Nate Marquardt

Chin

Both of these men have very good chins.

Story took a lot of big shots in the last round of his fight with Thiago Alves. Some of those shots stiffened him up a bit, but he never went down.

Nate Marquardt has been in many wars in his career and only been TKO'd one time.

Who was the man to knock him out?

Anderson Silva.

Anyone who is even remotely familiar with Anderson knows that there is no shame in him knocking you out.

Advantage: Wash

Grappling

Nate Marquardt is a very underrated wrestler. Because of his losses to Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami, many people have been saying that wrestling is Nate's Achilles heel.

That's just not true.

Anyone who actually saw Nate's fight with Yushin knows that Marquardt actually had the superior grappling in that fight and lost most of his points on the feet. Sonnen legitimately out-wrestled Nate, but Sonnen is one of the best wrestlers in MMA history.

Story is a skilled wrestler, but this is the first time he's facing a guy like Marquardt.

If Nate was able to out wrestle Yushin Okami, I don't see him having any trouble doing it to Story. That is, unless the weight cut saps too much of Nate's strength.

Advantage: Nate Marquardt

Submissions

Story isn't much a submission guy. If he gets his opponent to the ground, it's more likely that he will try to finish them off with punches rather than going for a submission. I don't even think Story is ranked in Brazilian jiu-jitsu

Marquardt is a second degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and the majority of his wins have come by submission.

If this fight goes to the ground, whether Rick is on top or on the bottom, he needs to be very wary of Nate's submissions.

Advantage: Nate Marquardt

Winner?

The general theme for this fight seems to be that Rick Story is good at a lot of things, but Nate Marquardt is better.

Nate is a very well rounded fighter and, on his best day, he could beat Rick Story anywhere he wanted to.

The big question mark going into this fight is Nate's cardio. It's his first time at welterweight and the cut could be very difficult for them.

Rick Story is a guy who likes to push the pace and wear on his opponents, so if he can get Nate to gas, he can win this fight.

However, I'm thinking that Nate will have been very careful with the cut, as he is a smart fighter, and his cardio won't be much effected.

Marquardt will probably outclass Story for much of the fight, but Rick did show a good chin against Thiago, so I think we'll see it go to a decision.

Winner: Nate Marquardt via Unanimous Decision