Martin Kampmann (20-5) has shown again last night at The Ultimate Fighter 15 finale that he’s got bounce, and it’s not about his head hair—of which he hardly has any. It’s about his heart that propels him to rise from impending loss and surprisingly emerge victorious just when his adversaries think they’ve finished him.
Well, lately Kampmann has proven that we should not be surprised next time.
The Hitman has made his last two opponents become little kids learning how to dribble a basketball: The harder they slapped the ball, the harder it bounced back into their faces.
Surviving a booming left hook from Jake Ellenberger and the subsequent barrage of fists that almost finished him in the first round, Kampmann came back strong in the second with knee strikes that earned him a Knockout of the Night award.
Previously, Kampmann also rose from a dangerously close defeat after getting rocked by Thiago Alves at UFC on FX 2 just last March in the third and last round of a fight he was judged to have been losing. Fortunately, Alves dove for a double-leg shoot after staggering his opponent, giving Kampmann the chance to reverse and sink in a guillotine choke that also won him Submission of the Night.
Further cementing his place among the world’s top 10 welterweights, fans are now abuzz on how close Kampmann is to a UFC title shot.
Kampmann has just knocked out a strong and heavy-handed wrestler in Ellenberger, achieving this feat after submitting a feared striker in Alves.
And, just prior to beating Alves, the Hitman notched a unanimous decision win over well-rounded and previous hot item Rick Story.
What better way to prepare for that much-coveted title shot than facing and convincingly beating opponents that offered a variety of fighting styles and scoring victories via equally varied ways of winning?
Also in hindsight, losing to but surviving submission specialist Jake Shields can’t be all that bad along the way to every MMA fighter’s ultimate objective.
Now, in case Kampmann eventually fights Georges St-Pierre and gets pushed down by the champion to the brink of defeat, will he be able to spring back and snatch the welterweight title?
Or will it be all downhill from there and he’ll just register as the nth frustrated pretender to the throne?
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