The man's a 2nd degree BB in BJJ, yet hasn't submitted anybody in 5 years. If you look at his record, he has more wins by submission than KO or decision, yet he rarely if ever goes for the submission. His submission defence is tight, as shown against Palhares, but his lack of recent offensive submissions is worrying. The man's got boxeritis and tries to KO everybody, even when he's losing the standup/being taken down all the time. I don't know whether it's a lack of fight IQ or he doesn't train his submissions as much as his stand up anymore, but you'd think someone with credentials like his would use that weapon more often and I think he could be far more effective if he used all his tools EDIT: Not specifically against Tarec he should've tried going for something (although it might have helped), just in general he should try and vary his game as he's pretty one dimensional right now
I think Nate is talented enough to get the job done he just has brain farts in big fights. Also Tarec is a great fighter in his own right don't take anything away from him. I'm excited to see both of them in the UFC
Tarec was stronger/had better TDD then Nate expected, and by the time that 3rd round came Nate's leg was so shot he could barely get power into his punches/shots
Have you considered that perhaps his inability to secure submissions has more to do with him being unable to finish takedowns?
to be honest i think its lack of fight IQ. Nate seems to have all the tools and the athleticism, i just think perhaps he is a lil slow on the uptake. he is a great fighter though, however i dont see him making that much of an impact in the UFC again.
Ricardo Arona is one of the top ten no gi grapplers of all time, and was top ten in his weight class in mma, yet he has never submitted someone with a winning record in MMA. My point is that there are different types of BJJ black belts; Marquardt is an excellent grappler, but he isn't a submission artist, and never will be. It just doesn't fit his skill set.
Wasn't necessarily saying just against Tarec, he never seems to try and use his BJJ against anybody. Last time I can remember was against Sonnen and that's cause he had no choice. If I remember correctly he even said before the fight that Sonnen wasn't going to be able to take him down as he thought he was the better wrestler so I just kinda get that the sense that he doesn't think he needs to train his BJJ that much as he always assumes he's going to KO his opponent, rather than look for anyway possible to win
Perhaps, but it's kinda hard to work any serious BJJ on pro opponent, if you have trouble with even getting the underhooks... Saffiedine was shutting down his attempts to grapple really well.
But he used to be. He started out as a grappler and used to get submission after submission, it's only lately that he's been trying to be a striker. Now he only uses his BJJ for defence/set up positions so that he can try and KO his opponents Like I mentioned, he thought Chael wouldn't be able to take him down so he probably just focused on getting the KO, rather than thinking like an intelligent fighter that he'll probably get taken down at least once as Chael was an Olympian, so he should probably work on his ground game just in case. At the time of their fight, I think Marquardt could've won if he practiced his submissions more leading up to the fight, but he didn't think it would hit the ground so he probably neglected that area of training and it could've made a difference
Yeah he's got all the tools, just like you said his fight IQ might be kind of low. He's shown some flashes of fight IQ where before he fought Palhares he made sure to sweat a lot so he could slip out of a leg lock much easier, but then he's also thought he would be a better wrestler than Chael and didn't think the fight would go to the ground so he wasn't prepared for that. I dunno, he just doesn't seem like he can put it all together as now all he tries to do is defend the TD and KO his opponent
