Nate Marquardt is once again an employee of Zuffa.

The former-UFC middleweight title-challenger, Marquardt has signed a contract with Zuffa-owned Strikeforce. 

The news was confirmed on "UFC Tonight."

Marquardt fought in the UFC from 2005 until 2011.  After a successful run at middleweight, he was expected to headline a "UFC on Versus" card in June of 2011 against welterweight Rick Story.  However, the day before the fight, "The Great" was not cleared by doctors due to elevated levels of testosterone.  Marquardt had failed to inform the UFC that he was using testosterone-replacement therapy.  This resulted in him being relased from the UFC.

Shortly after his release, Marquardt signed with U.K. promotion BAMMA.  He was expected to make his BAMMA debut earlier this month against Yoshiyuki Yoshida for the inagural BAMMA welterweight championship.  However, he was released from his contract last month. 

Sources say that Marquardt was relased from the contract due to the fact that BAMMA was unable to fulfill its end of the deal (BAMMA was most-likely not able to pay Marquardt what it agreed to).

Although not confirmed, Marquardt is expected to debut in Strikeforce in a welterweight bout with Tyron Woodley for the vacant Strikeforce welterweight championship.

(Pictured: Nate Marquardt)