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UFN 18: Carlos Condit On Fighting Martin Kampmann In UFC Debut

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The former WEC welterweight champion Carlos “Natural Born Killer” Condit has been waiting to debut in the UFC for a very long time.  He feels that he has dominated the WEC division to the max and his next step would be to test himself amongst the top 10 welterweight fighters in the world.  Condit is excited to join the UFC organization and is looking forward to face a top competitor like Martin “Hitman” Kampman at UFC Fight Night 18 (UFC 18).  He’s currently training with three other UFC competitors that are also scheduled to fight that same night including Ryan Bader, Steve Steinbeiss and Aaron Simpson.   He feels confident in his training partners and the routine he has going coming into this fight.

Condit has won his last 8 fights and has defended his last 4 title fights in the WEC.  He believes that a win over Martin Kampmann would put him two wins away from a title shot in the UFC welterweight division.  The main event bout between Condit and Kampmann is scheduled to take place on April 1st at the Sommet Center in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

Here’s a snip from Condit himself:

“I was approached by (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva and they offered me the fight with Kampmann in the UFC. I was excited and I accepted, and pretty soon after that I found out they were just eliminating the welterweight division…I felt like it was a natural progression for my career. I felt like it was my time to fight the other top 10 welterweights in the world, and they’re in the UFC…I’ve still been training as if I was fighting a five-round fight. Hopefully I’ll be able to push the pace even harder through three rounds….This has been a phenomenal training camp. It’s been my longest training camp, and I’ve had some really great partners helping me train for this fight at AZ Combat. I feel very prepared…It’s been great because we’ve got four guys fighting on this card coming up on April 1: Ryan Bader, Steve Steinbeiss and Aaron Simpson. They’re all very talented guys and I think we’re going to have a great showing. You know the other guys (Bader, Steinbeiss and Simpson) are going through the same thing and you don’t feel like the pressure is all on you, and you give each other support…To get a title shot I feel like I need to put together maybe three impressive wins. I feel like I’m definitely in the top five or six welterweights, but that remains to be seen, and I think fighting Martin Kampmann gives me a good chance to show what I can do…Martin Kampmann is very well rounded, so I have to stay sharp in all aspects of my game. I imagine he’s thinking the same thing…I’ve watched a fair amount. I’ve seen several of his UFC fights and some of his old fights from Europe. He’s very tough. He’s a solid fighter. [When watching past fights on Martin Kampmann] I’m looking for openings, for what he does in certain situations. When is he aggressive? When does he pull back? I also look to see between rounds, how fatigued he gets. Stuff like that…I expect it to be very fast paced and all over the place. We both have similar strengths as far as our skill sets and I expect a very exciting fight.”

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