No one ever said being a fan-pleasing fighter was easy.
The fans want drama and action. They want blood and guts. They want highlight reel finishes for highlight reel fights.
In short, they want it all, and that is never going to change.
In a recent interview with David Herbert of Buddhasport.com, Kampmann admitted that he’d much rather get the “Knockout of the Night” or “Submission of the Night” and return home minus the bumps, bruises and blood that accompany the coveted “Fight Of The Night” award.
In the interview, Kampmann made it clear that while he prizes epic brawls, the end goal is to remain as injury free as possible.
“The thing about FOTN is that you also take damage as well as your opponent. It means you get punched in the face and I’d rather just get “Knockout of the Night” or “Submission of the Night” and call it a night.” Kampmann said.
“That’s the best feeling to leave the cage with a win and not have any damage and injury free. Don’t get me wrong, I’m ready to go to war for three rounds, but I’d rather wake up the next day without any pain.”
This should not be surprising, really. The career of a fighter is a campaign ongoing, both in the gym and the cage, while the clock ticks on.
But it does pose a question: where is the line drawn between caution and calculated risk?
Many fans have turned against Georges St-Pierre over the past years due to his tendency to employ a strategy that will maximize his chance of victory and minimize his chance of defeat, and by proxy, injury.
He has had tremendous success with this, but at the cost of his reputation as a true monster in the cage.
The fans want their champions to be beasts in the ring, eating their food instead of playing with it.
Carlos Condit recently did the same thing. He followed a strategy that allowed him to take the interim title while staying out of harms way, and consequently staying out of a heated battle as well.
Sooner or later, when a fighter is getting near the top, they begin to look to the future, and in doing so, it seems they begin to make decisions that benefit themselves instead of pleasing the fans.
That is the catch-22 of the fight game. It seems to say: “Wage wars if you want the heart of the fans, but do not lose. If you do, they will remember you ultimately as the man who lost.”
Kampmann is one of those fighters who really is happy to let it all hang out in the cage, but he is 4-3 in his last seven bouts, and he has been in his fair share of firefights. Now, a man he defeated in 2009, Carlos Condit, is the interim champion of the division.
One begins to wonder how much of a motivation holding the title really is, as compared to keeping the fickle fans happy on a night-by-night basis.
At what point will Kampmann, if forced, draw the line between taking those calculated risks needed to finish the fight as opposed to being cautious?
We’ll learn the answers soon enough and we’ll get them from the most honest source available: the cage.
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