Nate Marquardt triggered by commercial, drops homophobic anti-LGBTQ+ tweet response to UFC, ESPN | Twitter reacts

Nate Marquardt dropped some homophobia onto Twitter on Saturday, and judging from the responses, he didn’t make many new fans.

A commercial triggered Marquardt, and he went into full-blown father mode and did the one thing any good parent would do to prevent his kids from seeing things on screens: He tweeted about it.

Marquardt, a former UFC middleweight title challenger and ex-Strikeforce champion, took offense to a commercial that aired during his stream on ESPN+, presumably during Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 219 broadcast.

“Wow disgusting commercial watching @ESPNPlus with my kids and have to tell them to look away so they don’t see two men kissing! @ufc @espn #barf #disgusting,” Marquardt posted on Twitter.

Wow disgusting commercial watching @ESPNPlus with my kids and have to tell them to look away so they don’t see two men kissing! @ufc @espn #barf #disgusting

— Nate Marquardt (@NathanMarquardt) February 19, 2023

And unlike some of his contemporaries who are prone to controversial tweets, some likely advice from managers or PR people, then a quick delete in an effort to scrub what was said, more than 12 hours later, Marquardt’s anti-gay tweet still is up.

Marquardt, who has been outspoken about his Christian beliefs during his career, got torn apart in the replies to his bigoted tweet. (And, of course, this being MMA, there was a small percentage of tweets in support of his needless and hateful post, as well.) You can check out some of the responses below.

Marquardt made his UFC debut in 2005 with a win over Ivan Salaverry. Marquardt tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone after the bout and was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission – though the win remains on his record.

Marquardt fought Anderson Silva for the middleweight title at UFC 73 in July 2007 and was knocked out in the first round. He was released by the UFC in 2011 when he was pulled from a fight the day before when he couldn’t pass medicals in Pennsylvania due to elevated testosterone levels from a therapeutic use exemption.

In 2012, he went to Strikeforce and won the middleweight belt there against Tyron Woodley, but lost it in his first attempted defense to Tarec Saffiedine at the promotion’s final event. He returned to the UFC after that in 2013, but the loss to Saffiedine started a stretch of 5-10 over the next nearly nine years.

After a stretch of three straight losses, including one to Sam Alvey – who then went on a run of 3-10-1 over the next five years – Marquardt was released from the UFC. He retired, but returned in 2021 and in his 58th career fight, submitted Michael Cora, a 5-5 fighter, at Titan FC 71. Marquardt quickly returned to his struggles inside the cage with a knockout loss to Valdir Araujo under the XMMA banner in late 2021.