Quarry rallies for victory
Nate Quarry felt he was behind after two rounds of his fight with Pete Sell on Wednesday night during the Ultimate Fighting Championship card at the Palms.
But the rally he staged to knock out his opponent in the third and final round to earn the victory was nothing compared to the comeback he has spent nearly two years completing.
The 35-year-old last fought for the middleweight title against Rich Franklin in November 2005.
In the meantime, Quarry has battled several injuries, the most serious of which required an experimental surgery to fix chronic back problems.
Health did not seem to concern the former title contender.
“I felt great coming in,” he said. “I believed in my training.”
Still, Quarry took some time to get going, though he doesn’t feel his time away from the octagon was the cause. Instead, he credited his opponent.
“I don’t view it as having ring rust. When I fought my first fight in the UFC (in April 2005), I had been off for a year and a half,” Quarry said. “(Sell) was beating the hell out of me. He was landing the straight left, and it felt like a jackhammer.”
Sell got the better of him in most of the exchanges as the two traded shots throughout the first two rounds, but Quarry managed to land a huge right hand less than a minute into the final round that dropped Sell. One more big right hand to his floored opponent prompted a stoppage and a dramatic win for Quarry.
“In my mind, I was losing every round, so I kept telling myself ‘You have to knock him out,’ ” he said.
In the main event, Kenny Florian also wanted to knock out his opponent. After his win over Alvin Robinson in July, the lightweight proclaimed “I finish fights.”
The comment has taken on a life of its own, but Florian lived up to the statement yet again with a first-round win by submission over Din Thomas.
“I don’t promise to finish every fight, but I promise to work my butt off to finish every one,” Florian said. “Luckily, it went my way tonight.”
Thomas appeared to suffer a knee injury while shooting in for a takedown of Florian, who quickly mounted his opponent and threw a flurry of punches. He was unable to finish with the strikes, but it set up Florian to lock in a rear naked choke, which caused a quick tapout by Thomas.
The win should move Florian a step up the ladder toward a possible lightweight title shot.
Chris Leben also earned an impressive stoppage victory. After getting caught with a big right hand, Leben responded and floored Terry Martin seconds later with a huge left with just over a minute remaining in the fight.
A one-point deduction in the first round meant that Leben appeared to be facing at best a draw if the fight made it to the final bell.
Nathan Diaz had no such worries, making quick work of Junior Assuncao with a submission by guillotine choke just 4:10 into the first round.
Las Vegan Gray Maynard highlighted the undercard with a knockout of Joe Veres in just nine seconds.
Cole Miller, Luke Cummo, Thiago Alves and Dustin Hazelett all earned victories as well, with Miller winning in the only decision on the nine-fight card.
