Julian Marquez choked out Darren Stewart, challenged UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley to a best beard competition, then threw his hat in the ring for the UFC middleweight title – all in the span of just a few minutes.

In other words, it was a busy, though productive Saturday night at UFC on FOX 26 for “The Cuban Missile Crisis,” who announced his presence with authority in his UFC debut.

The fight itself was memorable enough. After slugging it out in a wild brawl with Stewart (7-3 MMA, 0-3 UFC) in the first round, Marquez (7-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) caught him in a guillotine choke midway through the second, forcing Stewart to tap just before he went to sleep.

Once he got his chance on the mic, though, that’s when Marquez really went out of his way to make an impression. Focusing his attention on Woodley (and mistakenly calling him “Tyrone”), Marquez admitted to being impressed with the champ’s beard when they spoke before the fight.

“You came into my locker room, and I’m challenging you to the best beard,” Marquez said. “I need to know right now. Start a poll. Who has the better beard, me or Tyrone (sic)? Because that thing was beautiful. I’m very impressed, and I challenge you to a beard-off.”

Once the conversation got a little more serious, Marquez announced his desire to fight at upcoming events in either St. Louis or London.

As for who he’d fight in either of those places, Marquez casually put himself into the title hunt after all of one fight in the UFC, and somehow he did so while sounding like he was calling next on a video game console.

“I’ll take the winner of (Robert) Whittaker and (Luke) Rockhold,” Marquez said. “I don’t care. I’m going for gold in this. I don’t care how bad I get hurt. I don’t care what happens to me, but I’m still going for the gold at the end of the day.”

Now that’s a callout – sort of.

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 26, check out the UFC Eventssection of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.