In the aftermath of UFC 143, fans of the sport of mixed martial arts were left disappointed with the performance of Carlos Condit, a fighter nicknamed the Natural Born Killer. The fight had been against Nick Diaz for the promotions Welterweight title, albeit the interim version, following a serious injury to the champion Georges St-Pierre. While many voiced the opinion that it was Diaz who won the fight, it was Condit who clearly out struck and out manoeuvred his predictable opponent to take a clearly earn a decision on the judges scorecards.
Condit had been the underdog going into the fight, and in winning he had upset not just the odds against him but a chance of a ‘super fight’ between Diaz and St-Pierre. Many were quick to criticise Condit’s approach to the fight, saying he ‘ran’ from Diaz during many of the exchanges. Condit had fought a smart fight but not a fight that was deemed courageous or dignified.
Many past fighters had been drawn into Diaz’s brawling style and relentless cardio, all to be eventually overwhelmed. Condit’s tactic to stick and move has long been a staple of boxing and in fact follows the legendary trainer Cus D’amato’s adage, ‘‘you’ve got to be clever, you’ve got to be smart and not get hit, and when your able to do this you’re a fighter’’. Yet Condit wasn’t deemed a fighter, quickly being given the name ‘The Natural Born Runner’.
Carlos Condit is no coward. The same man who survived repeated overhand rights from power punching brute Jake Ellenberger, rebounding from the verge of unconsciousness to win a close decision. The same man who flew to England to take on Dan Hardy in what would be a pure kickboxing match, winning by first round knockout when Hardy’s last opponent, champion St-Pierre, had done everything in his power to keep him on the floor. The same man who came back from two rounds down on the scorecards to destroy the ridiculously talented Rory Macdonald cant be classed as a coward. In fact out of 33 professional fights this was only the 4th time Condit had gone to a decision. Condit has repeatedly shown grit and tenacity in fights where many others would have wilted under the pressure. Yet people were quick to overlook this and criticise Condit the same way many criticise the champion St-Pierre, for playing it safe.
Georges St-Pierre was 13-1 when he won the UFC Welterweight title from Matt Hughes, winning by technical knockout after landing a head kick. He was an ideal champion for the UFC at the time, he was dynamic, good looking, finished fights and even pulled off being French to a certain degree. His first title fight would be a squash match against a natural lightweight in Matt Serra, who had been awarded his title shot after winning a series of the Ultimate Fighter, where lower and mid-tier fighters were given a ‘Rocky-like’ chance at glory should they win the season. Matt Serra wasn’t really expected to win, not against the mighty St-Pierre, yet sure enough and given the unpredictability of kickboxing (read the other blog entries for further details) Serra managed to repeatedly rock GSP with power shots leading to a shocking first round upset win.
This loss would have a devastating effect on that incarnation of Georges St-Pierre, from that day he would never be the same fighter. This isn’t to say he faded away into shadows to Marlon Brando himself toward obesity. St-Pierre would prove his class, as he would come back from this defeat better than ever. How was he able to manage this? From the realisation that kickboxing only ever provides a 90% chance of winning, you will always be open to a knockout blow if you stand and trade with your opponents long enough. GSP was always a well rounded fighter, but now he was to change his entire approach towards fighting to that of a pure grappler. Developing a devastating takedown game, St-Pierre could minimise the chances of being knocked out and instead use his natural athleticism and expert submission defence to stay out of trouble on the floor.
GSP would win his next two fights to gain the opportunity to fight for ‘his’ Welterweight title in a rematch against Matt Serra, who had tellingly not fought since defeating St-Pierre a year before. This time GSP would use his grappling to neutralise the chance of a repeat occurrence and destroyed Serra in less than two rounds. St-Pierre would go on to defend his title six times to this date.
However as Georges St-Pierre grew in popularity, becoming one of the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view stars, there was also growing criticism for his cautious fighting style. Winning one-sided decisions against fighters like Dan Hardy, Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch and Jake Shields showed St-Pierre’s dominance at the top of the division. Yet all these opponents have been knocked out in one round by lesser opposition, some in there very next fight after taking on GSP.
There isn’t a critic in the world that’s doubts St-Pierre’s talents as fighter, the criticism towards him is more focused on the fact GSP doesn’t seem to ‘try’ to win fights by finishing his opponents, always seeming content to coast to a decision. People feel that St-Pierre fights ‘too pretty’, that he avoids the need to display the grit that is synonymous with great champions and legendary fights. This is similar to how many fans felt hoodwinked by the game plan of Condit against Diaz, a fight which on paper seemed to be and back and forth barnburner, with Condit’s own pre-fight admission ‘It’s gonna be a dog-fight’ played during the pay-per-view advertisements.
An interesting question is, are either of these men wrong to have fought this way? The answer is of course ‘no’. Condit was not the favourite against Diaz for a reason, had the fight of occurred like many believed it was going to he would have put up a good show, maybe had some early success, but inevitably the chances are he would have been overwhelmed by Diaz. Could he have knocked out Diaz if had he planted his feet and traded from the start, possibly, but even feared knockout artist Paul Daley had Diaz down twice with his best punch, the left hook, only for Diaz to recover and finish him in very first round.
Similarly, St-Pierre was considered a laughing stock following his surprise defeat to Matt Serra, and now he is a huge star in his home country of Canada and has millions in the bank. Likewise Carlos Condit can now command a lot bigger pay checks having been UFC interim champion regardless of how his fight with GSP goes down, although St-Pierre probably wrestles his way to a decision should his knee be fully rehabilitated.
Another fighter who can no doubt make a similar claim to Condit as possessing, or even adding ‘grit’ to his fighting style is Martin Kampmann. The Dane finds himself one fight removed from a possible title shot should he beat Johnny Hendricks in the co-main event of UFC 154. Through out his 15 fight UFC career Kampmann has seen many ups and downs, originally experiencing success as a middleweight until he was blown out the frame by Nate Marquardt at UFC 87. Kampmann had previously shown the ability to take punishment and come back to win in his fight against Drew McFedries, where he was repeatedly rocked on the feet before securing a takedown and then an arm triangle choke. However in the fight with Marquardt he was badly rocked with a head kick and the finished by TKO against the cage, despite having a knock out loss on his record Kampmann had never lost consciousness.
He would drop to welterweight and successfully spoil Carlos Condit’s UFC debut by split decision. He would then by stopped in his next fight by hard hitting Brit Paul Daley and be once again be shuffled back into the division and under card obscurity. Once again one thing that stands out in both Kampmann’s knock out losses was at no stage was he knocked out cold, taking hard blows that would normally flatten most fighters. However it’s the ability to comeback from these moments that make the characteristics of true champion and Kampmann was yet to show the steel needed to fight back from the bring of defeat.
After going 2-2 in his next four fights, including being robbed of a decision against a more determined but less skilled Diego Sanchez, Kampmann would find himself taking on rugged wrestler Rick Story.
The fight began similar to how many of Kampmann’s previous fights had started, with him getting clobbered with hard hooks to the face, and within a minute of action he was bleeding from a cut above his eye. Yet this proved a minor insignificance to the Dane, who would recover to expertly control the rest of the fight to get a decision victory.
His next fight would be against Brazilian kickboxer, in what would be a closely fought contest Kampmann would find himself losing heading into the last minute of the fight. A poor decision by Alves to take the fight to the floor would see the Dane, always as confident in submission as he was on the feet, secure a guillotine choke for a submission victory.
Kampmann would then be given a chance to solidify his position in the welterweight division against heavy handed wrestler Jake Ellenberger. Surely this would be another stumbling block for Kampmann, while he began his career as a kickboxer he had always lacked the power to be a serous threat on the feet which had left him looking a bit like a sitting duck in fights against big punchers. Ellenberger contains brutal power in both hands and given his wrestling base making him hard to take down it was obvious that at some point he would connect a big punch, then it would become a question of whether Kampmann’s chin would hold up.
Sure enough, 50 seconds into the fight Ellenberger landed a huge left hook which dropped Kampmann to floor. However this time the Dane wouldn’t be overwhelmed and expertly held out the rest of the round controlling Ellenberger in his guard. The second round would begin like the first with Ellenberger throwing hard shots on the feet, however Kampmann had already survived the worst his opponent had to offer. Given Ellenberger hook-centric attack, Kampmann was able to time a counter right hand which clipped Ellenberger and put him on wobbly legs. Kampmann, who had been losing the fight up to this point, pounced expertly with a flurry of knees in the clinch dropping his opponent to the ground for the referee stoppage. Kampmann would finish the fight with his face covered in blood, battered but victorious.
His opponent Johnny Hendricks, possesses what could be argued as the antithesis to grit and determination, one punch knockout power. Why bother exchanging for three gruelling 5 minute rounds, taking damage and taking a fight into the trenches when you can end a fight and the drop of a hat (or opponent). This fight maybe a bridge to far for Kampmann and he may once again succumb to the big power of his opponent.
Hendricks had announced himself as a top contender in his fight against Jon Fitch at UFC 141. Fitch is regarded as once of the toughest fighters in the division due to his near impossible ability to resist submission and the brutal 5 round beating he managed to survive in his title shot to St-Pierre. The fight would last a mere twelve seconds with an overhand left from Hendricks removing Fitch from his senses, by the time the referee had stopped the fight Fitch had recovered slightly, but only to the point where he was trying to wrestle the referee. This fight shows the possible conclusion to the match up with Kampmann, what will be interesting is if Kampmann can once again display the necessary grit to come back from these moments.
