Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight title contender Nate Marquardt is ready to make his Strikeforce debut on Sat., July 14, 2012, against Tyron Woodley at the "Rockhold vs. Kennedy" event at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon.

A victory would earn "The Great" the vacant Strikeforce welterweight championship and give him his first title under the Zuffa banner after many years of service. But he knows Woodley will have a few tricks up his sleeve.

He'll have some too.

"Tyron is a very tough guy. He's undefeated in 10 fights. Earlier in his career he had all finishes; he was able to knock out or submit his opponents. He's recently faced some tougher guys and went the distance but still was able to come out on top. His strength is definitely his wrestling. I'm sure he's working on his striking and his jiu-jitsu game but he's always going to have that wrestling background that he falls back to. I know I'm going to have a world of experience on him as far as striking and grappling on the ground is concerned but like I said, he's a tough guy, he's explosive with his right hand, and I'm sure he's going to have a couple tricks up his sleeve. I will too."

Seeing as Marquardt hasn't competed professionally since a unanimous decision victory over Dan Miller in March 2011, not to mention making the cut to 170-pounds, he'll have to dig deep into whatever bag of tricks he has.

Anyone think he'll be hoisting gold by the end of fight night next month?