Martin Kampmann’s drop to Welterweight is paying off as he moved into the divisions elite with a split decision win over WEC champion Carlos Condit in the main event of the recent UFC Fight Night. The fight was a fast paced battle between two fighters with dangerous stand-up and submissions and both fighters had their moments in the first two rounds. Kampmann scored a takedown early in round one before moving to side control and working a guillotine choke that looked deep. Condit scrambled and came on top before passing Kampmann’s guard to escape the choke. Kampmann then returned to guard and attempted a heel hook that put Condit on the defensive and eventually escaped forcing the fight back to the feet. Condit closed the round strong delivering a hard barrage strikes that cut Kampmann under his left eye.
Condit continued where he left off in the second round, peppering the Danish Muay Thai champion with a series of strikes. Kampmann again took Condit to the mat where he worked from inside the WEC champions guard; landing a handful of stiff shots. ’The Natural Born Killer’ worked his way back up and attempted to get the fight to the mat, only to again get caught in Kampmann’s guillotine choke. With the choke locked in tight, Condit eventually escaped and then scrambled to take Kampmann’s back where he looked to sink in a rear naked choke, but Kampmann again escaped and ended another fast paced round inside Condit’s guard.
With the first two rounds possibly going either way, both fighters needed to close out the fight strong to be sure of the decision and it was Kampmann who finished the stronger. After taking the fight to the ground early in the round, Kampmann landed solid shots from inside Condit’s guard and took Condit back down everytime he escaped. Condit attempted several submissions, but Kampmann avoided any danger and then worked well from on top. In the final seconds Condit sunk in a tight guillotine choke but didn’t have the time to force the tap and Kampmann appeared to have done enough to win the fight. Two judges scored the fight 29-28 for Kampmann, with the other scoring the same but for Condit.
This was an excellent fight and how it didn’t get fight of the night is beyond me. Both guys transitions were a joy to watch and the fight reminded me of the great ground battles of past years in PRIDE FC. The thing that shocked me was that Kampmann got the better of the supposedly better ground fighter Condit on the ground and Condit outboxed the supposedly better kickboxer Kampmann. This is one of those fights that raises the stock of both men and I’d be willing to watch either of them fight on a main card in the future. I’d like to see both guys fight on the same show leading to a rematch at some stage in the near future. With Koscheck’s loss recently, both of these guys sit up there with the GSP’s, Alves’ and Fitch’s of the division.
In other action, Ryan Bader showed he has a lot more work to do by doing nothing other then lying on Carmelo Marrero for three rounds. Bader showed a lack of confidence in his hands and a lack of versatility on the ground in this fight and while his wrestling is certainly top notch, there are plenty of guys in the division who can stop a takedown. Tyson Griffin showed improved hands and a high threshold for pain in surviving a nasty leg lock from Rafael Dos Anjos en route to winning a shutout unanimous decision. Dos Anjos showed crafty submissions with the knee lock that had Griffin on weakened legs for the rest of the fight, but his lack of stand-up and wrestling cost him the fight as he couldn’t take advantage of Griffin’s slowed footwork. TUF5 veteran Cole Miller did every MMA fan a favour by choking out Junie Browning inside a round. Miller caugt Browning in a tight guillotine forcing the submission at 1:58 of the first round. After the fight he called out the winner of the upcoming Spencer Fisher-Caol Uno fight at UFC 99.
Other Results
Ricardo Almeida Unanimous Decision Matt Horwich
Tim Creduer Submission 2nd round (Guillotine Choke) Nick Catone
Rob Kimmons Submission 1st round (Standing Guillotine Choke) Joe Vedepo
Brock Larson Submission 1st round (Rear Naked Choke) Jesse Sanders
Aaron Simpson TKO 1st round (punches) Tim McKenzie
Jorge Rivera Unanimous Decision Nissen Osterneck
Gleison Tibau Unanimous Decision Jeremy Stephens
