Nate Marquardt Strongly Opposes Dan Hardy's Recent Rant Against Wrestlers

Two days ago I reported on ufc fighter Dan Hardy’s recent column where he attacked UFC fighters who use their wrestling backgrounds to gain a dominant position on the ground and then proceed to do nothing in order to grind out a judge’s decision. Apparently his words didn’t sit well with Nate Marquardt, who headlines the upcoming UFC Fight Night 22 event against submission specialist Rousimar Palhares. “Nate the Great” spoke at length to MMAWeekly.com regarding the situation.

Here’s what Marquardt had to say regarding Dan Hardy’s comments: “I think that’s just something from someone who isn’t a good wrestler. I think wrestling is a big part of MMA, and you shouldn’t complain about it, you should learn it and learn how to defend against it… With mixed martial arts we see waves of changes, trends in the sport where one minute it’s strikers that are dominating the sport, then all of a sudden it’s the wrestlers, then it kind of goes back and forth, and I think it’s just something you have to pay attention to and be prepared for.”

For the most part, I wholeheartedly agree with Marquardt, and not simply because I’m a fan of the man. I think those that do nothing but whine and complain about dominant wrestlers doing nothing with their takedowns are simply angry at themselves for not being good enough wrestlers to avoid being taken down and grinded out. I’ve used this term before, but it’s a very fitting analogy: there’s a “beautiful ugliness” that comes from a dominant wrestler grinding out a decision. Look at Chael Sonnen and Jon Fitch:  they’re always active on the ground, but they rarely finish their fights. Their skill comes in taking an opponent into their area of expertise and dominating them so thoroughly in that one area that, by the time the final bell rings, the judges have no choice but to give them the Unanimous Decision victory.

But as I’ve said before, let’s not sugar coat this: there is a growing amount of “lay and pray” going on in the UFC. This problem isn’t UFC-specific, it’s happening in other promotions around the world too, but the problem is heightened in the UFC because they set the standard for all other MMA promotions to follow. And boring one-sided fights aren’t the standard the UFC wants to set. I think Dan Hardy is actually right: if a fighter is not active on the ground, stand them up. If they keep going to the ground and doing nothing with their advantageous positions, start taking points away.

Now, this is not a knock on the UFC’s talented roster of word-class wrestlers. The problem I have is with how some fighters choose to implement their wrestling in a UFC octagon. There are a host of excellent examples besides Fitch and Sonnen of wrestling-based fighters producing very entertaining fights: Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, and of course, UFC legend and Hall of Fame member Randy Couture. A few bad apples do not indicate that the bunch as a whole is spoiling. So Nate Marquardt and Dan Hardy are both right in some cases and wrong in others.

And what do you think, fans and friends? Do you side with Dan Hardy, who thinks that wrestlers should be stood up as quickly as possible if they don’t do anything with their takedowns? Or do you agree with Nate Marquardt that a fighter can only blame himself if he gets dominated by his opponent’s superior wrestling?