Julian Marquez had a big weekend at UFC 258.
Not only did he notch a bonus-winning submission finish over Maki Pitolo, he capitalized on his platform by getting pop star Miley Cyrus to respond to his Valentine’s Day request.
But this past weekend meant so much more to Marquez (8-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC), who returned after more than two years away from the cage due to a torn latissimus dorsi. With doctors telling Marquez he may never fight again, his determination paid off as he was able to overcome adversity, both leading up to and during the fight.
“It’s huge,” Marquez told MMA Junkie Radio. “It means a whole bunch to me. Like 31 months, we even talked a lot during that time. There’s a bunch of highs and lows in it and to finally be able to come here and get that win and the way I got that win and how I got the win and what I showed during that win and what I showed during that fight. It just shows who I am and it shows everybody this is where I want to be.
“You’re gonna have to kill me to get me out of there, and I’m only getting better. Little by little, I’m getting more and more educated, my fight IQ is getting stronger, and I’m becoming more of a mixed martial artist. This weekend, it was a very wild weekend. It was a very wild fight. I faced the best Maki Pitolo that the UFC has ever seen. I brought the best out of him and even then, I found a way to win.”
In a back-and-forth battle, Marquez was two rounds down heading into the final round. But, after his head coach James Krause fired him up in the corner, Marquez was able to flip the script in Round 3 and submit Pitolo with an anaconda choke in the final minute of the bout.
Marquez credits Krause for his leadership and waking up the animal in him.
“He said ‘if you don’t finish it, then it doesn’t (expletive) count,’” Marquez said. “And that meant that all of the hard work that I put in, all of the stress, all of the 31 months of highs and lows, this is just gonna be washed away. No one’s going to care. So he spoke to that. I honestly was asleep in that fight, but whatever was inside me switched.
“I’ve never called James, ‘sir.’ I’ve never said, ‘Yes sir’ to him in my entire life and he’s never called me ‘Julian Marquez.’ If you listen to the fight, me and him connected on a different level where he used my full name, and I said ‘Yes sir.’ Our two animal instincts, our two fighter instincts, those people came out and spoke to each other.”
Julian Marquez says UFC 258 win over Maki Pitolo is just the start: ‘I’m only getting better’