According to multiple reports, Pennsylvania Athletic Commission Executive Director Greg Sirb says his state's athletic commission has indefinitely suspended former UFC middleweight fighter Nate Marquardt. Sirb stated publicly today at a press conference than an undisclosed medical issue that both Marquardt and the UFC knew about as long as six weeks ago was never resolved, meaning he couldn't be cleared to compete at UFC on Versus 4. MMA Weekly has the details:
According to Sirb, Marquardt and the UFC were notified that he had not met the necessary medical requirements as of six weeks ago, and gave him up until an hour before weigh-ins to resolve the situation, but he was never able to clear things up.
"Nate has known for probably about a month and a half, he knew the situation, it was no surprise. Everybody (including the UFC) knew. Everybody’s known, I think everybody assumed he was going to be able to qualify," Sirb said.
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Because of strict medical privacy rules in the state of Pennsylvania the commission is unable to provide any details as to what Marquardt did not complete prior to the Saturday deadline, but he was given ample time, but unfortunately for the former middleweight contender it didn’t happen.
"We’ve known about it and we gave him every opportunity, the last report we got was 3 o’clock yesterday, we gave him as much leeway as we could, obviously we’ve got a live event, you’ve got to make the call. The UFC made the call when we said no he’s not going to meet it," Sirb commented.
Because of medical privacy laws, neither the UFC nor the athletic commission are allowed to disclose the precise medical issue affecting Marquardt or what steps he has to specifically take to resolve the matter.
Sirb is quoted as saying that Marquardt is indefinitely suspended until he personally clears up the matter. Sirb states Marquardt knows what requirements he must fulfill, and once he resolves them, will no longer be indefinitely suspended.
The nature of Marquardt's medical issue is not known, however, according to the professional fighter licensing application in Pennsylvania, "refusal of a drug test will result in a suspension."