This Day in MMA History: Sept. 15

The Ultimate Fighting Championship went to the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, on a Wednesday in 2010 for UFC Fight Night 22.

The main event saw Nate Marquardt score a TKO victory over fearsome submission expert Rousimar Palhares in the first round. However, that fight was not supposed to be the main event of the night. Demian Maia was actually supposed to fight Alan Belcher, but Belcher was forced to withdraw from the fight to undergo emergency eye surgery.

Although to many it may appear to have been just another Fight Night card, with six of the 10 bouts going the distance, there was some controversy in the main event. Early in the fight, Palhares went for a heel hook, which Marquardt defended. Palhares then tried to indicate that he thought that Marquardt was unnaturally slippery, at which point Marquardt blasted the unsuspecting Palhares with a series of punches and ultimately pounded him out. After the fight, it was officially announced that Marquardt passed both pre- and post-fight inspections and that no officials before, during, or after the fight found any evidence of greasing.

On the subject, Marquardt explained afterwards that he warmed up extensively before the fight with the express intention of working up a good sweat and making himself slippery to avoid the dangerous leglocks of the vicious “Toquinho.”