Nate Quarry comes out of retirement, dream comes true
Coach Greg Walker: “Over the years I would tell him ‘Keep training, we’ll get there.’ ,,, He is probably one of the hardest working students I’ve ever had.”
Former UFC middleweight #1 contender Nate Quarry, 43, retired in 2010. However, he came out retirement for a special exhibition fight on Saturday.
Jake ‘The Snake’ Beckmann, 19, has been training for four years with Greg Walker at Walker’s Martial Arts academy, in Newberg, OR. Beckmann is one of the hardest training students at the gym, and he has Down syndrome. Like any brave young man, he wants to fight.
“As he would train with me he would ask me all the time, he would say, ‘Hey, when can I compete?’ or ‘When can I fight?’ said Walker to David St. Martin for MMAFighting.com. “And so over the years I would tell him ‘Keep training, we’ll get there.’ Over the years he has worked his butt off. He is probably one of the hardest working students I’ve ever had.”
Walker posted on Facebook asking if anyone in the local MMA community would participate. Two days later, ‘The Rock’ rolled up, and the pair were scheduled to have an exhibition bout on Saturday, Apr. 18 at the ‘Rumble at the Roseland’ in Portland, Oregon. Beckmann took Quarry down with a low double, and dropped back for a leg lock, tapping Quarry in round two.
‘The Snake’ won a replica UFC title belt, purchased with the help of a Go Fund Me.
“Throughout my life, over and over again, I’ve been given an opportunity to live my dreams,” Quarry said afterwards. “If I can make the slightest effort to help a young man, not only live his dream but also show his mother, what it could be like to see him follow in his dreams.”
“If I can affect the entire community and let everyone know that special needs people are just a little different. They’re just that: they’re a little different. They have dreams. They have goals, just like the rest of us. Why should we try to tell them how they should live their lives? If we can break them out of the box I think that’s the right thing to do.”
The bout also raised $1,000 for Create the Connection.