Filed under: UFC, MMA Fighting Exclusive
Carlos Condit was sitting in an Albuquerque, N.M. restaurant named Flying Star, fueling up for his next workout when he got the call that changed his life. On the other line was his manager, Malki Kawa.
“Who’s the best welterweight in the world?” Kawa asked him.
“Dude, I don’t know?” Condit said, wondering why he was suddenly being quizzed. “What are you talking about?”
With that, Kawa laid a bombshell on him, telling him that Nick Diaz was out, and he was in against UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 137. Less than 48 hours and a whirlwind press tour later, Condit said he was still in a bit of shock over how quickly his life had changed. True, in some ways he’s only swapping legends, from BJ Penn to St-Pierre, but a chance to fight for MMA‘s ultimate prize has been a long-time dream.
So when he got the call, in the midst of his personal celebration, he couldn’t help but think about all that’s come before it. And he couldn’t help but tear up, right there in the Flying Star.
“I love what I do but it’s not always fun, man,” he told MMA Fighting. “There’s a lot of sacrifices, a lot of struggles mentally. Every time before a fight, you think, ‘Have I prepared for this? Am I worthy? Do I belong in the cage with this fighter?’ That’s something you have to process and go through and put in the back of your mind by the time you get in the cage and fight.
“I just thought about my family, my wife (Seager) and my son (Owen),” he continued. “They’re always there for me. The support from my wife and the motivation my son gives me, it’s the best energy and motivation I could imagine.”
He’ll certainly need it to dethrone St-Pierre, a winner of nine straight. Much has been made of the fact that St-Pierre and Condit train under the Team Greg Jackson banner, but Condit long ago voiced his willingness to face St-Pierre if the championship was at stake. Anyway, it’s not as if he’s fighting a close friend or even a training partner.
The two share a banner, but not much else. As Condit told MMA Fighting, he and St-Pierre have never actually trained together.
“He hasn’t been at Jackson’s a whole lot, and even when he is, we both kind of saw this coming,” he said. “We kind of stay on our sides of the gym when we’re training there. This has been my goal, to be the UFC welterweight champion. I’ve thought about this scenario for years. As the years went by and he won title defense after title defense, it seemed like if I did get the shot, it would be against him.”
Condit (27-5) comes into the title bout riding a more modest four-fight win streak, but has only lost once in the last five years, that coming on a controversial split-decision against Martin Kampmann in his UFC debut.
It was shortly after that loss to Kampmann when Condit made the move back to Albuquerque to join Greg Jackson’s. He says he felt a breakthrough in his training during preparation for his October 2010 fight with Dan Hardy, which he won via first-round knockout. He’s finished each of his last three opponents.
But St-Pierre presents a set of problems unlike any other welterweight in the world. He has unstoppable takedowns, crisp kickboxing and a claustrophobic ground game. He’s strong, quick and athletic. He excels in the transition game. There really isn’t much he does wrong, and leaves few openings for opponents.
Condit says he’s always been impressed by St-Pierre’s ability to take the best fighters in the world and completely dismantle them. He hasn’t yet formulated a game plan, but says he poses unique threats of his own.
“I feel like I have a skill set that can pose some problems for him,” he said. “I think he’ll be worried with my standup. If he takes me down and puts me on the ground, I’m pretty comfortable there and I’ll pose some problems with my jiu-jitsu. Honestly, I don’t know how I’m going to pull this off, but that’s how I feel before a lot of fights, and it usually turns out OK.”
If that makes him sound a little apprehensive, it’s all part of Condit’s usual path and mind set. Unlike some fighters who are dreamers, he gives off a realist’s vibe. At various points, he admits that being taken down by St-Pierre during the fight is “inevitable,” acknowledges that he presents a more multi-dimensional opponent than most of GSP’s recent foes, and agrees that GSP has been “pretty conservative” in his approach. He also believes that Diaz’s behavior showed him unready for the opportunity he ultimately had yanked away.
“You’ve just got to shake your head,” he said. “In reality, if you’re not ready to do this kind of stuff, you’re not ready to be champion. This is part of the business. You don’t even have to be good at it. Just get through it to get to what you’re good at, fighting. He’s just not ready to be at this level of competition.”
If you ask him how he thinks he’ll win the fight, he won’t give you a specific answer about what will happen just before his hand is raised. Instead, he gives the response of a grinder.
“To be honest, I’m focusing on my next training session and not so much the fight,” he said. “I know I have to earn this day by day, session by session if I have a chance.”
He’s got a chance, one that came as a surprise, but one he says he will be ready for. When he even thinks about winning the UFC championship, he says he gets butterflies in the pit of his stomach.
“I think if I keep working hard and keep performing, good things are bound to happen,” he said. “I feel like I’m at the best place I could be to prepare. I have the best partners in the world. I have so much support from my friends, my family and fans. To make them proud and bring the belt back home to New Mexico would be more than I could ever dream.”
Despite the strange circumstances of his title shot, he doesn’t believe that means it’s his fate to win the title. It’s something he’ll earn in the gym everyday until he can claim it in person. It is simply a stroke of luck, an opportunity that fell out of the sky like a flying star.