A bloodied canvas and a broken nose were the key pieces of evidence left behind by “The Natural Born Killer” at UFC Fight Night 67 on Saturday night.
The former interim UFC champ Carlos Condit had become a forgotten soul in the welterweight…
A bloodied canvas and a broken nose were the key pieces of evidence left behind by “The Natural Born Killer” at UFC Fight Night 67 on Saturday night.
The former interim UFC champ Carlos Condit had become a forgotten soul in the welterweight division after spending over a year on the sidelines rehabilitating a torn ACL.
But as the lights dimmed and unfamiliar entrance sounds echoed throughout the arena, Condit made the world remember once more.
ThiagoAlves, a former UFC title contender, stood across from Condit hoping to play spoiler to his long-awaited return. Home turf belonged to Alves, who stood proud in front of thousands at Goiania Arena in Goiania, Brazil.
The familiar strategy of switching stances and beautifully blended striking combinations from Condit immediately put minds at ease of the post-surgery issues that at some time come along with ACL injuries. Always happy to oblige on the feet, Alves remained in the heat of the exchanges looking for any opening offered to him to land the fight-altering strike.
He found a home for a few of his signature leg kicks, but Condit’s unwavering focus had him meeting shin to shin on all the rest. It was a highly competitive striking match early on as both men looked to find their range and timing.
However, the feeling-out process came to an abrupt end in the second round as Condit feinted a straight hand before rearranging Alves’ face with a beautifully timed lead elbow. It was the tide-turning strike of the fight that put Alves into survival mode. As Condit rushed across the cage to clean up the bloody scraps of his wounded prey, Alves miraculously fought back to his feet and pushed the fight back to the center of the Octagon.
But the damage from the elbow strike had already been done. Alves’ nose was a twisted, broken mess, forcing him to rely solely on breathing from his mouth. A heart the size of Brazil saw Alves through a second-round pummeling, but at the doctor’s discretion, the fight wasn’t allowed to go any further.
Condit was awarded a victory by doctor’s stoppage. As is customary, fighters reacted on social media to the high-quality fisticuffs put on display in the fight night main event (Warning: NSFW Language).
After speaking with Dr. Marcio Tannure, the medical director of Brazil’s athletic commission (CABMMA), MMAFighting’sGuilherme Cruz is reporting Alves’ “badly broken” nose will require surgery. Meanwhile, Condit has already set his eyes on the winner of the welterweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald in July.
“I want whoever has the title in a couple months. Whether it’s Rory or whether it’s Robbie Lawler, I want that guy,” Condit said at the post-fight press conference.
JordyMcElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.
In the end, Carlos Condit came out looking exactly as we all remembered him—victorious, and spattered in his opponent’s blood.
Condit made short and gory work of Thiago Alves on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 67, forcing the ringside doctor to…
In the end, Carlos Condit came out looking exactly as we all remembered him—victorious, and spattered in his opponent’s blood.
Condit made short and gory work of ThiagoAlves on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 67, forcing the ringside doctor to stop their main event fight after the second round due to Alves’ broken nose. It was victory No. 30 of Condit’s professional career, improved on his gaudy 93 percent finishing rate and reaffirmed his position as one of the welterweight division’s deadliest technicians.
So, pretty much the same-old, same-old for the Natural Born Killer.
Despite returning from 14 months off after suffering a serious knee injury in a fight against TyronWoodley last March, Condit entered still clinging to the No. 4 spot in the UFC’s official 170-pound rankings. While that lofty standing didn’t offer much room for upward mobility, an impressive showing against Alves puts him very much back in the thick of a revamped title picture.
For a few uncertain moments there, Condit’s standing wasn’t quite so clear.
It took him a round to find his range against the shorter but more powerful Alves. Their first five minutes together were hotly contested, with Alves landing several of his trademark hard low kicks. Condit’s normal high volume of strikes was on display, but the intensity that had paced him to a 29-8 overall record (6-4 UFC) since 2002 was noticeably lacking.
Perhaps he needed to knock off some rust, or maybe that first round was just a scouting expedition. Condit began the second more aggressively, and he dropped Alves with a beautiful left elbow roughly a minute into the stanza. It marked the beginning of the end for the 31-year-old Brazilian.
“After the feeling-out process I just started thinking about different things that we had worked on,” Condit told UFC play-by-play announcer Jon Anik in the cage when it was over. “We put together a lot of different tools, a lot of tactics. The first thing I threw that we had worked on, it really worked.”
Alves offered no quit, even after it was clear Condit had broken his nose. His career, too, had been plagued by recent inactivity, but he was coming off a TKO win over Jordan Mein at UFC 183 in January. A victory over Condit here would’ve been just as meaningful—if not more—for him.
It could’ve given him renewed momentum—something Alveshasn’t really enjoyed since he fought Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title at UFC 100 in 2010. Counting that loss, Alves came in just 4-4 in his last eight fights, and prior to 2014, he had sat out two full years owing to a laundry list of injuries and rehab efforts.
Though Condit pinned him against the fence and began raining a potpourri of strikes on his already bloody face, Alves managed to work his way to his feet not once, but twice. He briefly threatened Condit with a standing guillotine choke and continued to trade punches and kicks as best he could.
But Condit stung him again with a right hand and then a highlight-reel spinning elbow. He took Alves down with a bit less than two minutes left and did it again just before the end of the round.
“I knew he was hurt,” Condit said at the postfight press conference, via Sherdog.com’s TristenChritchfield. “I hurt (his nose) on the first rising elbow, and then I hurt it again on the spinning back elbow. I could just feel the fight drain out of him after I hit him that first time.”
Alves seemed game to continue, but he also didn’t protest too loudly when the ringside doctor in Goiania, Brazil told his corner he couldn’t go on. It made for a bit of an anticlimactic end to an otherwise great fight, but it was the right move to protect the fighter from further damage.
One of the last times we saw Alves, he was watching the big screen in the arena, turning his head from one side to the other, trying to get a look at the sudden, unscheduled left-hand turn in the middle of his face.
For Condit, the win proves he is still a player in the suddenly volatile welterweight division. After losing his interim UFC title to St-Pierre in 2012 and dropping his next bout to future champ Johny Hendricks at UFC 158, it might have been tempting to think we’d already seen his high watermark in the Octagon.
But St-Pierre’s sudden departure from the sport at the end of 2013 effectively gave new life to everyone at 170-pounds and Condit is just now getting around to making good on it. Hendricks won the title at UFC 171—the same event where Condit was injured—but during the time Condit was out rehabbing his knee, Hendricks lost the championship in a rematch with Robbie Lawler.
Lawler will now defend the title against Rory MacDonald at UFC 189 in July (also a rematch), and Condit joins Hendricks and Woodley waiting to see who emerges with the belt. Regardless if it is Lawler or MacDonald, Condit likely now stands just one more win away from his own No. 1 contender status.
Not bad for your first night back at work in more than a year.
UFC Fight Night 67 headliners Carlos Condit and Thiago Alves have had their recent careers defined by injuries.
Condit missed out on a huge opportunity to stake a claim for a title shot in the post-Georges St-Pierre welterweight division when he lost t…
UFC Fight Night 67 headliners Carlos Condit and Thiago Alves have had their recent careers defined by injuries.
Condit missed out on a huge opportunity to stake a claim for a title shot in the post-Georges St-Pierre welterweight division when he lost to Tyron Woodley at UFC 171 because of a knee injury that would keep him out of the cage for a year. Alves, on the other hand, was one of the top welterweights in the sport in 2008 but has spent much of the last seven years nursing various strains, tweaks and tears in every muscle, ligament and joint imaginable.
It was a fight with a great deal on the line for both men, who needed to make up for a great deal of lost time.
Things started off with a slow, methodical first round. Alves threw his signature leg kicks. Condit looked for big hits from the outside.
Then came the second round.
NBK—that’s Condit for those who didn’t catch his Shawn Michaels-inspired rebranding—landed a gorgeously timed standing left elbow that rocked Alves early. His nose was badly broken, but Condit lived up to his nickname, showing no mercy as he delivered heaps of punishment to his wounded foe.
Alves lasted until the bell, but the ringside doctor was not keen on his chances of surviving another round. The fight was called on the stool, with Condit being officially going down as the winner at 5:00 of Round 2 via TKO.
So what did we learn from this bout?
For Alves, it was confirmation of something we already suspected. While he is a devastatingly heavy hitter, he just doesn’t seem to be able to hack it against today’s top welterweights.
It might be the injuries taking their toll, or it might just be the natural evolution of the division. Either way, with his loss to Condit and the beating he took from Jordan Mein, it would be hard to favor him against anybody in the Top 20 of the welterweight division—never mind the Top 10.
And what of Condit?
The former WEC welterweight champ has always been the perfect blend of technical brilliance and pure, brutish violence. Knee injuries, however, can be a tricky thing and can truly end the careers of men such as Condit, whose greatest skill has always been his ability to instantly capitalize on a slight opening.
In the opening minutes of the fight, it seemed as though he might have gone the way of King Mo Lawal, who has been struggling for years to recover from his own knee troubles. Condit was tentative. Too tentative, it seemed.
The questions started swirling. Had he lost a step? Was he overly concerned about his bad knee? Was this the beginning of the end?
Nope, nay and nein. While it took a few uneventful minutes, when Alves’ hands were a bit too wide apart, the NBK who demolished Dong Hyun Kim and mauled Dan Hardy showed up with an accurate, devastating and unconventional strike. And it was glorious.
So what did we learn? Carlos Condit is back, folks. And that’s just great.
The UFC’s welterweight division has consistently held its status as one of the deepest collectives under the promotional banner in the Zuffa era, with Carlos Condit and Thiago Alves being staples of the upper echelon of the weight class for the past se…
The UFC’s welterweight division has consistently held its status as one of the deepest collectives under the promotional banner in the Zuffa era, with Carlos Condit and Thiago Alves being staples of the upper echelon of the weight class for the past several years.
Yet with both the Natural Born Killer and American Top Team representative being sidelined for lengthy stints in recent years, questions began to hover in regard to their elite-level status. The Pitbull has returned from his two-year hiatus with back-to-back victories that have the Muay Thai wrecking machine looking back to form inside the Octagon. He went into Fight Night 67 looking to officially reclaim his place in the divisional title race and was determined to get the job done in his signature brutal fashion.
Across the cage, Condit was facing uncertainty of his own. More than a year had passed since he suffered a devastating knee injury against Tyron Woodley at UFC 171, and the New Mexico native worked diligently in his time away from action to ensure he’d be ready to go when the next opportunity came to pass. That moment came in Goiania, Brazil on Saturday night, as two of the best finishers in the history of the welterweight division stepped into the cage to handle their business.
The collision between the former champion and the Pitbull figured to be a violent affair, and it certainly delivered. While the opening round had a large feeling out period, the second frame was pure ferocity. Condit dropped Alves with a short elbow on a counter exchange that mangled the Brazilian’s nose. Nevertheless, the former title challenger dug deep and continued throwing heat despite Condit lacing him with huge shots at every turn.
In between the second and third rounds, the cageside doctor called a stop to the fight because of the state of Alves’ nose, and Condit marked a triumphant return with a crisp and devastating performance.
Let’s take a look at the good, bad and strange from Fight Night 67.
The Good
Carlos Condit has been one of the baddest welterweights in the world for the better part of the past decade, but after suffering a tough knee injury that put him out of action for 14 months, it was unclear whether the same Natural Born Killer would ever return.
Those questions were answered at Fight Night 67, as the former interim champion blistered a resurgent Thiago Alves in the main event in Goiania, Brazil. While Pitbull overcame the New Mexico native’s length with his signature leg kicks in the opening frame, the second round saw Condit unleash that killer instinct he has built his career upon.
The Jackson-Winkeljohn-trained fighter ripped Alves with a short elbow in the early goings then proceeded to batter and pound away at the Brazilian powerhouse for the rest of the second frame.
The end result of Condit’s barrage led to Alves suffering a badly broken nose that forced the cageside doctor to call an end to the bout. With the win, Condit not only stamped an impressive return to the heated welterweight ranks but also put himself back on track to climb toward the top of the 170-pound division.
*** There was bad blood brewing between Charles Oliveira and Nik Lentz leading up to their tilt at Fight Night 67, and it’s Do Bronx who got the last laugh. After their initial meeting ended in a “no contest” because of an illegal knee strike from the 25-year-old submission ace back in 2011, they came into their rematch in Goiania looking to settle things once and for all.
It was a back-and-forth affair throughout the initial two rounds, but Oliveira latched onto a guillotine choke in the final round to pick up his fourth consecutive win in the featherweight ranks.
*** Stepping up on short notice is a risky move, but the reward was definitely worthwhile for Alex Oilveira in Goiania. Cowboy stepped in as a replacement to face K.J. Noons and defeated the former Elite XC lightweight champion via rear-naked choke in the first round of the contest. With King Karl’s savvy boxing pedigree, the wiry Brazilian wasted zero time taking his opponent to the floor. Once Oliveira had the former Strikeforce title challenger on the mat, he locked in the choke to earn his first victory under the UFC banner.
*** While there was nothing pretty about the fight between Francisco Trinaldo and Norman Parke, the lightweight tilt did provide an interesting study in how victory can be obtained despite faltering late in the fight. The stocky Brazilian and The Ultimate Fighter winner had a close opening round, but Trinaldo battled back to take a clear lead in the second.
While Parke didn’t show a crazy sense of urgency in the final frame, he certainly did enough to take the round on the judges’ cards. Yet when the final decision was read, two of the judges saw the bout going in Trinaldo’s favor. That’s a tough call because the fight was there for the taking for Parke, but the UK native couldn’t quite find a consistent rhythm.
*** It’s not wise to go to the ground with a guy who has “Jiu-Jitsu” tattooed on his back, and Rony Jason showed Damon Jackson exactly why that is. While the Leech was getting the better of the The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil winner in the early goings, the savvy submission artist hit a brilliant sweep off his back he turned into a triangle choke. Jackson did his best to fight off the lock, but the more he rolled on the mat, the deeper in danger he landed until he was forced to tap.
With the victory, Jason not only gave his home country crowd something to cheer about but picked up his second win in his past three showings inside the Octagon as well.
*** Jussier Formiga is looking to make a run at the flyweight title, and the Nova Uniao fighter took another strong step at Fight Night 67. The resilient Brazilian took it to Wilson Reis on the preliminary portion of the card, as he used his striking, forward pressure and grappling skills to keep the flyweight powerhouse on the defensive. The end result was Formiga picking up his third consecutive win in the 125-pound ranks, and it will be interesting to see what the UFC chooses to do with him.
While it’s doubtful he could leapfrog John Dodson in the race for title contention, he will definitely draw one of the division’s biggest names in his next outing.
*** Making a good first impression on the sport’s biggest stage is a crucial move to make, and both Nicolas Dalby and Elizeu dos Santos showed up to scrap on their respective debuts. The former Cage Warriors champion triumphed in what was a hard-fought tilt from start to finish.
The Danish striker jumped used his aggression to claim the opening frame, but dos Santos upped his output and was able to turn the tide. While the fight could have easily gone either way, it was Dalby who pulled out the split-decision victory on the judges’ scorecards.
*** Mirsad Bektic simply isn’t messing around, and he furthered that notion against Lucas Martins at Fight Night 67. The 24-year-old Bosnian scrapper dominated Minero from the jump until he pounded out the stoppage victory in the second round.
With his victory on Saturday, the American Top Team product not only keeps his undefeated record intact but has now collected three consecutive victories under the UFC banner. The featherweight division is only growing more competitive, and Bektic could very well be poised to do big things in the 145-pound fold.
The Bad
While it would seem unlikely that K.J. Noons would be released from his UFC contract after submitting to Alex Oliveira on Saturday night, there does seem to be something amiss with the California-based fighter.
His bout with Cowboy at Fight Night 67 was to be his third as a welterweight under the UFC banner, and there just wasn’t anything that looked right about him once he stepped into the cage. Commentator Jon Anik mentioned that Noons has changed up his training pattern, putting more focus on giving his body ample time to rest. While his gas tank was never tested against Oliveira, his preparation was, as the rangy Brazilian was able to get Noons down and submit him with relative ease.
While the loss is nothing to write Noons off about, it’s clear he’s not fighting with the same intensity and urgency upon which he made his name. The fighter who has stepped in to compete in recent outings is a far cry from the high-volume striker that went toe-to-toe with Nick Diaz in a pair of memorable matchups several years back.
Simply put: Noons just doesn’t seem to be fully invested in what he’s doing at the present time, and the cracks are beginning to show. If he wants to turn things around, he’s going to need that fire from the days of old. Only time will tell if he ever recaptures that drive.
The Strange
The best part of writing this article while covering cards in Brazil is there is just so much strange to be found. Whether the frenzied crowd keeps their passionate and threatening chants cranked up to full volume from the opening bout until the main event or chaos spills out in the physical form for all to see inside the Octagon, things have simply been known to get weird in the place widely regarded as the birthplace of mixed martial arts.
That trend continued at Fight Night 67 in Goiania on Saturday, and fight fans didn’t have to wait long for the curious happenings to present themselves.
The initial wacky turn came from the cageside judges during the women’s strawweight bout between Juliana Lima and Ericka Almeida in the second fight of the night. While Lima scored with a solid takedown, she was allowed to ride out top control for lengthy stints without doing any major damage or working toward a submission finish. Furthermore, while Almeida was on her back for most of the fight, she was able to defend herself well despite being in a compromising position.
All in all, it was a difficult fight to watch. One of the judges apparently shared that sentiment, as they handed in a 30-25 card in favor of Lima. When 10-8 rounds are scored, there is normally a lopsided beating handed out or one of the fighters is clearly dominated to the point of nearly being put away. The judge who scored two of those rounds as such either saw things playing out that way or fell asleep, which would be understandable in this particular case.
And what would complement strange scoring and questionable standups better than a bit of mystery? Thank goodness Darren Till was on hand to provide the fighting faithful with the necessary bit of intrigue it takes to get through a six-fight main card. The debuting welterweight’s left arm is adorned by a portrait tattoo of a woman who some in the MMA community believe strikes a solid resemblance to surging strawweight star Paige VanZant.
While that’s probably not the case, it’s still a far better look than Alan Belcher’s ill-fated Johny Cash tattoo. No offense to the legendary Man in Black, but the ink on Belcher’s arm looks like the late country star pulled through a dough press. On the other hand, Till’s artwork looks well done and served as a solid complement to finish he scored after after blistering Wendell Oliveira with a buffet of ground shots to earn the second-round knockout.
It took Till time to get comfortable under the bright lights, but once he settled, he—as he so eloquently put in his post-fight interview—”elbowed his opponent’s face off.” It was a job well done by Till and an impressive first showing inside the Octagon.
With murder having been addressed in the last paragraph, it’s a fine segue to get into what happened to Ryan Jimmo at Fight Night 67.
The former MFC champ turned struggling UFC light heavyweight came into his bout against Francimar Barroso in desperate need of a victory, as the Big Deal had dropped all but one of his past three showings inside the cage. And while Jimmo came out determined and aggressive, those energies were quickly zapped from his bulky frame courtesy of a brutal groin kick.
While low blows and eye pokes are common in MMA, rarely do fans ever get to see the puke bucket brought out. Any time a shot downstairs induces vomiting, it’s a sure guarantee that shot to the pills was of the vicious variety. After throwing up and regaining his bearings, Jimmo continued, but he never recovered from the illegal blaster that floored him.
Some illegal shots are simply an unfortunate effect of where fighters are throwing strikes from, but they are illegal nonetheless. What Barroso did certainly had an impact on the fight and should have resulted in a deduction because it broke the rules. However, it’s a rare sight to see a referee take a point on the first offense of the fight, and that gray area certainly played out in the Brazilian’s favor on Saturday night.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
If “The Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit and Thiago “Pitbull” Alves would have clashed about five or six years ago, the bout would have probably been a part of a pay-per-view event. In 2015, with Condit making his comeback from a torn ACL and Alves r…
If “The Natural Born Killer” Carlos Condit and Thiago “Pitbull” Alves would have clashed about five or six years ago, the bout would have probably been a part of a pay-per-view event. In 2015, with Condit making his comeback from a torn ACL and Alves re-establishing his career after mounds of injuries sidelined him for two years from 2012-14, the two 31-year-old veterans will headline UFC Fight Night 67 on Fox Sports 1 in Alves‘ native Brazil.
Condit injured his knee in his March 2014 bout against TyronWoodley at UFC 171. After rigorous rehab, Condit is headed back to the Octagon. He promises his return bout with Alves will be “fast-paced and violent” in this interview with MMA Fighting.
Alves has won two fights in a row, having stopped Jordan Mein and won a decision over Seth Baczynski in his most recent bouts. The Pitbull pulled a victory from the jaws of defeat against Mein. Alves was being pummeled by the young and talented Mein, before the latter got careless and was caught with a kick to the body from the rugged Brazilian.
The strike stopped the American in his tracks and gave Alves an improbable victory in a fight he was clearly losing. On Saturday, he’ll be looking to score another explosive win in front of his countrymen.
We don’t know if Condit will show any rust from his long layoff, but assuming he’s the same fighter that has proven to be one of the best welterweights in the world, the Natural Born Killer should win impressively.
Condit‘s game was deeper than Alves‘ before he suffered the injury; according to his interview with UFC.com, Condit has added even more layers to his game.
He’ll avoid Alves‘ aggressive attempts to make the fight a brawl and win by submission in the second round.
The Best of the Rest of the Main Card
Oliveira Will Be Too Much for Lentz
In the co-featured bout, two top-10 featherweights will battle in an important 145-pound scrap.
No. 9-ranked NikLentz takes on No. 8-ranked Brazilian Charles Oliveira. Lentz‘s only loss since 2015 came by unanimous decision to perennial contender Chad “Money” Mendes. Aside from Jose Aldo, who has beaten Mendes twice, Lentz is the only fighter to even go the distance with Money since 2012.
As tough as Lentz is, Oliveira is a future superstar.
He took on too much too fast from 2012-13 when he lost back-to-back fights to Cub Swanson and Frankie Edgar. Since then, Oliveira has won three straight fights. He’s still just 25 years old, but he looks to be coming into his own. In the biggest win of his career, Oliveira will take a serious step toward earning a title shot.
He’ll out-strike Lentz to take a unanimous decision.
Someone’s Going to Get Stopped
When KJ Noons and Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira meet, it would be a shock if the fight lasts the full three rounds. Noons and Cowboy have 17 KO wins combined in 35 fights.
Both men seem to be comfortable in a brawl but in examining their respective fighting styles, Oliveira looks to be the more technically sound. He also has the better defense. Per FightMetric.com, Noons absorbs an insane 3.83 strikes per minute.
Against a powerful and technical striker like Cowboy, that’s a problematic tendency. In an eye-opening performance, Cowboy will score a second-round TKO over a tough veteran that has only been stopped once in his MMA career.
It feels as though Carlos Condit has been gone for years.
In truth, it’s only been 14 months, but so much wholesale change has occurred in his absence that, when Condit returns on Saturday to take on Thiago Alves at UFC Fight Night 67, it’l…
It feels as though Carlos Condit has been gone for years.
In truth, it’s only been 14 months, but so much wholesale change has occurred in his absence that, when Condit returns on Saturday to take on ThiagoAlves at UFC Fight Night 67, it’ll be to a welterweight division where anything seems possible.
Last we saw the Natural Born Killer, he blew out his knee in the second round of a bout against TyronWoodley at UFC 171. That was March 15 of last year, on the same fight card where Johny Hendricks edged Robbie Lawler to seize control of the 170-pound title recently vacated by Georges St-Pierre.
Remember that? Barely? Sounds like ancient history, right?
Turns out, the post-GSP era has been a rough ride for several of the UFC’s top welterweights.
For starters, Condit’s injury let a lot of the air out of Woodley’s victory over him. Woodley lost his next fight to Rory MacDonald and has been in rebuilding mode ever since. So far, so good, with back-to-back victories over Dong Hyun Kim and Kelvin Gastelum, but he’s still not knocking on the door of a title shot.
Meanwhile, Hendricks tore his biceps at UFC 171 and—after his own rehab stint—promptly lost the championship in a rematch with Lawler at UFC 181. He rebounded to defeat Matt Brown three months later but now has to wait for Lawler to fight MacDonald in July before he can move any further up the ranks.
End result: Condit re-enters a wide-open division this weekend, somehow only 31 years old and still No. 4 on the UFC’s official rankings. Not too shabby, all things considered.
Alvesdoesn’t necessarily shape up as the sort of opponent who can help his standing much, but Condit definitely needs a win here if he wants to keep himself ensconced among the 170-pound Top Five.
“I think that this definitely solidifies my spot as a contender,” he told MMAjunkie radio this week. “Thiago’s not ranked really high right now, but it’s only because he was out with injuries for a long time. He’s without a doubt one of the top guys in the division. A win over him is going to put me in the running for a title shot soon.”
Somehow also just 31 years old, Alves missed more than two years owing to a litany of injuries and rehab efforts. He returned last April with a decision win over Seth Baczynski, but then missed another 13 months before notching a second-round TKO of Jordan Mein.
But that Mein win now looks better on paper for Alves than it did in practice. The Brazilian endured a tough first round at the hands of the 25-year-old upstart before stunning him with a body kick early in the second stanza. He’ll roll into this meeting against Condit slotted at No. 12, and with a lot to gain if he can defy the 2-1 odds against him, according to Odds Shark.
And perhaps that’s sort of what makes this fight so interesting. Here we have two former top fighters—Alves faced St-Pierre for the title at UFC 100, Condit has been WEC champion and UFC interim champ—both theoretically still in the thick of their athletic primes.
Yet we don’t really know what to expect from either of them.
Things had not been going particularly well for Condit even before his injury. Counting the Woodley loss—and he was losing, right up to the moment the knee want kablammo—he’s just 1-3 dating back to November 2012. There are people who would tell you he also lost his previous fight to Nick Diaz at UFC 143, but that’s a different column for a different day.
Those three losses came against elite-level competition—St-Pierre and Hendricks, before Woodley—but the middling record coupled with the extended absence leaves us wondering where he fits in with a greatly changed welterweight picture.
The first five years of Condit’s UFC career left the impression he was better than almost anyone in his weight class, but not quite as good as the very best. But now, the sudden departure of St-Pierre and an unstable situation at the top could very well reopen the book on him.
Who’s to say Conditcouldn’t defeat Lawler, if the two ended up fighting later this year?
Who’s to say he couldn’t top Hendricks or Woodley in a rematch?
Who’s to say he couldn’t beat MacDonald a second time, just like he did when they were both UFC pups back in 2010?
We won’t know for sure until we see him out there with Alves, though it’s possible a realigned 170-pound class ends up benefiting a guy like Condit most of all.
A bloodied canvas and a broken nose were the key pieces of evidence left behind by “The Natural Born Killer” at UFC Fight Night 67 on Saturday night.