It’s not really reinventing the wheel to try and figure out where Martin Kampmann is in the UFC’s welterweight division. Anyone who’s been watching him for any amount of time has been trying to figure him out.
Every time he enters the cage he puts on a good show, he fights top guys and he’s never badly beaten. In fact, his last two losses were arguably wins. Actually, he flat out beat Diego Sanchez, no matter what the judges said.
But all those solid performances and good showings against tough opposition have left him in purgatory at 170lbs. What is he? A contender? A gatekeeper? Just a guy?
The reality is, if you’ve only lost to top-10 guys and guys who’ve fought for titles in the UFC, you’re legit. You’re a contender.
Hell, Kampmann has a win over Carlos Condit, who until Tuesday was going to fight for gold next weekend. That has to count for something.
Kampmann’s striking is vaunted, a remarkably crisp style founded on a lifetime of kickboxing. He understands angles and distance, he’s quick and he’s among the more technical combatants in all of MMA, much less his division.
He can also take a tremendous punch, as he’s displayed numerous times—most notably against Paul Daley, who regularly beheads opponents. Daley was unable to put Kampmann to the mat no matter how hard he tried.
He’s also among the most underrated grapplers in the division, as he’s difficult to take down and even more difficult to keep there.
Jake Shields, who has perhaps the best combination of jiu-jitsu and wrestling in all of MMA, had to fight tirelessly to take the Dane to the ground at UFC 121. Even when he did it usually came at the cost of eating big punches and knees.
The issue for Kampmann, it seems, is the gameplan. Particularly, how quickly it goes out the window when he gets the itch to throw down.
Training at Xtreme Couture in Vegas, he has access to perhaps the best mind in mixed martial arts in Randy Couture, a champion who proved his mettle countless times in the Octagon.
Yet, if you tag him or show any willingness to stand and chuck hands at all, Martin Kampmann is standing in front of you and throwing back. Gameplan be damned, he’s knocking you out or he’ll die trying.
That’s perhaps not the best approach if you have an eye on the title.
While people love a guy who throws caution to the wind, you don’t see those guys fight for gold that often.
You need to temper your enthusiasm to crack skulls a little, and perhaps use some of that unheralded wrestling and grappling from time to time. Kampmann won’t, and as a result he finds himself hovering in the top-10 but never really making up much ground.
Maybe that makes him a gatekeeper, a stout test for anyone who thinks they deserve to fight the big fish. There’s certain as strong an argument for him being a gatekeeper as there is for contender.
Therefore, it’s probably only fair to say that Martin Kampmann isn’t too far from either side of that dividing line between contender and gatekeeper.
In fact, perhaps he is that line.
But with a win over Rick Story at UFC 139, he’ll be back on the contender side of things, which is at the very least a guarantee for some exciting fights in the future. No fan can hate that idea.
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