Filed under: UFC
As MMA personalities go, Martin Kampmann is a polar opposite from his UFC on Versus 3 opponent Diego Sanchez. While Sanchez is often verbose, introspective and commands the spotlight, Kampmann is concise, restrained and falls into the background. But put him in a cage, and the power hinted at by his “Hitman” nickname starts to come out.
In fact, a case can be made that Kampmann has faced the strongest list of welterweights of any fighter in the world over the last two years, including matchups with Carlos Condit, Paul Daley, Paulo Thiago and Jake Shields. Amazingly, those four had a higher combined win percentage (80.4 percent) at the time they faced Kampmann than UFC champ George St. Pierre’s opponents in that time span had before facing him (77.5 percent).
Last October, Kampmann was just a hair away from ending Shields’ 14-fight win streak, losing in a controversial split decision. Kampmann rarely gets animated in media interviews, but discussing that pivotal loss brings out some of the fire in him.