Rory Markham

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early MMA Career
3 IFL
4 UFC Career
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Rory Markham (born March 25, 1982) is an American professional mixed martial artist and former member of the Quad City Silverbacks in the IFL.

He stands 6 ft. 0 in. tall and fights in the welterweight division (170 lbs.).

He is an IFL veteran and currently fights as a welterweight for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early MMA Career

Rory Markham made his professional mixed martial arts debut on October 12, 2003 at Extreme Challenge 54. He faced and defeated John Bulger via KO at just 59 seconds of the first round.

A loss due to a cut came in his next fight against Kurt Illeman, before running off seven straight victories in primarily the Extreme Challenge and XFO organizations.

The seven victories included future TUF 8 contestant and EliteXC veteran, Jason Guida and future IFL competitor, Victor Moreno.

Markham's winning streak was brought to an end at XFO 10: Explosion when he suffered a 47 second TKO loss to Trevor Garrett.

IFL

With an 8-2 record, Markham made his debut for the International Fight League as a part of the Quad City Silverbacks which was coached by former UFC welterweight champion, Pat Miletich.

He faced the tough Mike Pyle in his debut and impressively defeated him via KO with only 44 seconds on the clock.

Under two months later, Markham followed up the Pyle KO with another KO, this time the victim being future UFC competitior, Brad Blackburn.

In his next two IFL appearances, Markham wrapped up two more TKO victories over Marcelo Azevedo and Keith Wisniewski respectively.

On the IFL's 2006 year ending show, Markham faced Team Quest product, Chris Wilson. Markham suffered his first loss in the organization when he was stopped by the more technical striker at 2:14 of round 1.

Markham rebounded in April of 2007, with a third round KO over "The Spoiler" Pat Healy. That win was followed with another TKO victory, this time over Chris Clements.

With an IFL record of 6-1, Markham fought in what was to be his last IFL appearance against Brett Cooper at the IFL's Grand Prix finals event on December 29, 2007. Markham went down by TKO in the 2nd round to Cooper.

UFC Career

Markham secured a victory in the inaugural Adrenaline MMA show over Jay Ellis via triangle choke before being picked up by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on a three fight deal.

His UFC debut came on short notice, at the July 19th, UFC Fight Night 14. An event that was created out of the desire to counterprogram Affliction Entertainment's first foray into mixed martial arts, Affliction: Banned.

Markham faced the scrappy Brodie Farber on the shows undercard. Markham looked to be in trouble early as Farber caught him with some good shots. However, Farber got careless at the wrong moment as Markham through a picturesque high kick that knocked Farber stiff at 1:37 of the first round.

The win helped to secure Markham's reputation as a knockout artist and has warranted considerably more exposure with his next bout taking place against Dan Hardy at UFC 95 on February 21, 2009.