UFC's Nate Marquardt says his move to welterweight was Georges St. Pierre's idea

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Nate Marquardt's decision to move down to the welterweight division from his long time middleweight home came as a surprise to a lot of people, especially since his championship aspirations don't seem to meld with a division championed by friend and training partner Georges St. Pierre. But according to Marquardt, it was St. Pierre himself that influenced him to make the move.

"Actually, he brought it up me," Marquardt said in comments made to ESPN.com. "He asked me what I was walking around at and said, 'Wow. You should drop to 170.'

"I was like, 'I don't know. You're the champion there. I want to be a champion.' He told me not to worry about it, that if that's what is best for me I have to do it. I didn't even think about it until he said it. Once I went back to my own camp, it made sense to me."

Marquardt's will experiment with the move to welterweight for the first time on June 26 when he meets Anthony "Rumble" Johnson in the main event of UFC on Versus 4 in Pittsburgh, Penn. The longtime veteran and one-time UFC title challenger isn't expecting any issues with the weight cut, and though the move puts into view a possible fight with St. Pierre down the line, Marquardt isn't looking that far ahead.

When I started my career I was a lightweight," Marquardt said. "Over the years, I put on weight. When I started fighting for the Pancrase middleweight division, it was at something like 181 pounds and I was under that weight. I know what I'm doing. I've been fighting professionally for years. I've fought in Japan before, cutting anywhere from zero to 14 pounds in one day. I know how to do it and I have a lot of guys around me who know how to do it."

"Honestly, I'm not thinking about [a fight with GSP] and if it's ever an issue I'll deal with it then. I don't know if [St. Pierre] is planning on moving up but I definitely know he's considering fighting Anderson. I think that's a great fight and I think he has the perfect style to beat a guy like Silva."

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Penick's Analysis: I think it's a lot more likely that we'll see St. Pierre move up to the middleweight division and vacate the Welterweight Title before we'd see these two actually fight, and I think that was probably in St. Pierre's mind when he suggested the move to Marquardt. Marquardt has the skills to be the top fighter in the welterweight division, he just needs to put everything together after a few rough outings in big spots over the last couple of years. But if he can make the cut without any negative effects to his game and can get past Johnson in this first fight, he's going to be a big player in the welterweight division moving forward.

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