Former WEC welterweight champion Carlos “Natural Born Killer” Condit (26-5) has been asking to fight a top five opponent for some time now, and had recently been lobbying to replace the injured Jon Fitch against BJ Penn. On Friday, the UFC named an opponent that seems to agree with Condit, as he and the Korean “Stun Gun” Dong Hyun Kim (14-0-1, 1NC) have been scheduled to meet at the upcoming UFC 132 event.
“A win over Condit would break Kim into the top ten and a win over Kim would bring Condit another step closer to a world title shot,” said UFC President Dana White.
UFC 132: Cruz vs. Faber II is scheduled to take place on July 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and is headlined by a UFC bantamweight title bout between champion Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber. Faber is the only fighter Cruz has ever lost to in his career.
By the time July 2 rolls around Condit will have been idle for almost seven-and-a-half months. He is coming off a first round knockout win over Dan Hardy at UFC 120 last October, earning his third straight win and his eleventh victory in twelve bouts. The last, and only WEC 170 lb champ, earned wins over Rory MacDonald at UFC 115 and Jake Ellenberger at UFN 19 in that three win run.
Kim remains undefeated in his career, having a split decision loss changed to a “No Contest” against Karo Parisyan, after his opponent tested positive for banned painkillers. The Korean has also won his last three fights, all by unanimous decisoin. His last fight was on Jan. 1st against Nate Diaz at UFC 125. Previous to that were wins over Amir Sadollah at UFC 114, and TJ Grant at UFC 100.