Athletes
MARQUEL MEDEROS IS GETTING COMFORTABLE
Streaking Lightweight Talks Quick Turnaround, Feeling Settled Inside The UFC Cage
MarQuel Mederos went 421 days between his debut win over Landon Quinones in February 2024 and his sophomore victory over Austin Hubbard earlier this year in Mexico City, as injuries frequently interrupted preparations and forced him out of contests.
But the Dana White’s Contender Series graduate is trying to make the absolute most of being healthy right now, as he makes a quick turnaround to hustle right back into the Octagon this weekend for a clash with fellow Class of ’22 member Bolaji Oki just 64 days after his last appearance.
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“That’s what I’ve been waiting on!” he boomed when asked about getting right back down to business on Saturday evening in Las Vegas. “Going from being out 14 months to having back-to-back fights is such a good feeling, especially after having such a long layoff.
"I think people kind of bask in their victories and they want to take a little time, because that feeling of being a winner is good, so it’s definitely scary for people to just hop right back in after getting a win. But I look at it as I want to have that momentum, and the more often you fight, the faster you get pushed to the top, so it’s definitely a good feeling to have a quick turnaround now.”
The 28-year-old lightweight, who carries a 10-1 record and eight-fight winning streak into this weekend’s event at the UFC APEX, wasn’t necessarily pleased with how he performed against Hubbard in Mexico City, where he came out on the happy side of a debated split decision verdict, though there were positive lessons to be taken away from the grimy, hard-fought battle.
“That fight camp, I broke my cheekbone and my nose five weeks before that fight, so I’m fighting that fight having done mitts and cardio, that’s it; no sparring whatsoever,” Mederos said, not as an excuse for his performance, but to provide some context to what he was able and unable to do last time out.
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“If you tell a lot of guys ‘you can’t spar, you can’t wrestle, you can’t grapple for the next five weeks; you’ll have to just go fight,’ a lot of dudes will look at you,” continued Mederos, twisting his face into a depiction of nervousness and anxiety. “It’s a confident booster that we did the bare minimum and still went out there and got the victory.
“Did I like the way we won? No, but we got the victory doing the most we could, but the least that I’ve ever done.”
After coming up in the game under the watchful eye of coach Marc Montoya as part of the team at Factory X Muay Thai, the cost of living in the Greater Denver Area prompted Mederos to start investigating relocation options, and after checking out a few spots, he settled on Glendale, Arizona, and connecting with the crew at The MMA Lab.
He was there ahead of his fight with Hubbard, and was right back in the gym when that one ended, eager to continue taking in the knowledge and learning new things that come with shifting camps.
“I went to a couple gyms and I loved The Lab,” he explained when asked how he landed in the desert after so many years in the mountains. ”I like what they stand for, I like the environment, I like how it’s a team, because that’s what I came from at Factory X.
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“The mentality is a big thing (that is different),” continued Mederos. “If you look at the top fighters at Factory X, it’s a lot more finesse, a lot more touch — and I still have that — but the mentality here, if you think about a guy that built The Lab like Benson (Henderson), he was balls to the wall, ‘Let’s go!’
“I think that’s the biggest thing I’m taking from it is that sometimes you’ve got to bite down on that mouthpiece and go. It can’t always be finesse, which is what it was at my last gym. It was ‘pick your shots,’ and more of an IQ thing, whereas here, there is definitely an IQ component, but it’s more like, ‘Let’s get after it.’”
Change is often difficult, and the challenges can be ramped up when one parts ways with a group they’ve worked with for an extended period of time.
Routines are built, approaches and theories are committed to memory, and taking in and adapting an entirely new set of foundational elements and ideas is a process that can take months or years to get comfortable with, if it takes at all.
For Mederos, working in a new room has been inspiring, and given him an entirely new perspective on the sport to consider.
“I love it!” he said of having new voices in his ear, new training partners to work with in his new surroundings. “I think it all depends on the athlete and, for me, I don’t mind it because I’m adaptable.
“If I’m in a room, I’m gonna learn who works and who the best in the room is. Once I identify who is the best in the room, who are they working with? Who are they talking to? What coaches do they have in their ear? What is their strength and conditioning like?
“In each room, there is always a path to success,” continued Mederos. “Typically, the top guys in those rooms are gonna show you the path to success, so it’s about getting your ego out of the way and saying, ‘What is this guy doing? What is that guy doing?’ and then applying it to yourself.
“I love it because — how can I explain it? It’s definitely different because I grew up at Factory X, with that approach, but now I’m learning a whole different approach to the game that I hadn’t ever looked into before.”
Healthy and ready to make the walk for the second time already this year, everything is going according to plan when it comes to the goals Mederos set out for himself in 2025 so far, and he plans on keeping things on track by collecting another victory this weekend.
“The goal at the beginning of this year was to go 3-0, so we move to 2-0 this week, and we go get at least one, and then we set up a Top 15, Top 10 run for 2026; that’s the way to play it,” said the confident lightweight.
“Maybe if we get something clipped in the meantime, they might even jump me up!” he added with a laugh. “You’ve gotta be ready for short notice in this game because that’s how a lot of opportunities are coming these days.”
Looking back on his first two experiences as he readies for his third on Saturday, Mederos believes he’s yet to perform to the best of his abilities, but he expects that to change this weekend.
“Calm, cool, collected, and violent; that’s what I’m planning, for sure,” he offered as a forecast for what it come.
“I’m comfortable now,” he added, grinning. “These first two fights, I haven’t been comfortable, for whatever reasons, but they shouldn’t have let me get comfortable. And I’m definitely comfortable now.”
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