The Indiana Gaming Commission handed seven UFC Fight Night 27 fighters medical suspensions. Two of these fighters, Court McGee and Dylan Andrews, fared worse than the others. They both received indefinite medical suspensions, meaning they’ll need to be cleared by a physician before they can do anything meaningful.
Court McGee won a grueling split decision over TUF: Smashes winner Robert Whittaker. And Dylan Andrews, after getting thrown around for two rounds, knocked out Papy Abedi in the third round but claimed in the post-fight interview to have damaged his shoulder. Attentive viewers might have noticed that Andrews couldn’t put his arm through the sleeve of his shirt after the fight— never a good sign. But, officially, the Commission has yet to disclose any specific injuries he may have suffered.
There were other medical suspensions, though they were not as severe:
(Remember winning matches in Mortal Kombat when your guy has one sliver of health left? That’s what happened here. Photo via Getty Images.)
The Indiana Gaming Commission handed seven UFC Fight Night 27 fighters medical suspensions. Two of these fighters, Court McGee and Dylan Andrews, fared worse than the others. They both received indefinite medical suspensions, meaning they’ll need to be cleared by a physician before they can do anything meaningful.
Court McGee won a grueling split decision over TUF: Smashes winner Robert Whittaker. And Dylan Andrews, after getting thrown around for two rounds, knocked out Papy Abedi in the third round but claimed in the post-fight interview to have damaged his shoulder. Attentive viewers might have noticed that Andrews couldn’t put his arm through the sleeve of his shirt after the fight— never a good sign. But, officially, the Commission has yet to disclose any specific injuries he may have suffered.
There were other medical suspensions, though they were not as severe:
Getting his face run through the deli slicer that is Carlos Condit earned Martin Kampmann a 30-day suspension with no contact during training for 14 days.
Papy Abedi will have a 60-day suspension (with no contact during 30 of those days) to contemplate his knockout loss to Dylan Andrews. Ironically, Abedi lost the fight but received a shorter suspension than Andrews.
Justin Edwards got a 30-day suspension with no contact for the entire duration of the suspension, which is remarkably short for the ass-kicking Brandon Thatch inflicted on him.
Hatsu Hioki received a two week suspension with no contact for two weeks. Fortunately, the myth of Hioki ever being a top-echelon fighter has received an indefinite suspension with his loss to Darren Elkins.
Finishing out the medical suspensions, Roger Bowling was suspended for 60 days on account of those totally legal knees he ate. Something tells me that he won’t be receiving a win bonus like his opponent Abel Trujillo did.
They have similar records and fighting styles and, coincidentally, featherweight Conor McGregor and welterweight Brandon Thatch carried similar hype into their UFC debuts.
Thatch also matched McGregor in his debut performance and made an equally e…
They have similar records and fighting styles and, coincidentally, featherweight ConorMcGregor and welterweight Brandon Thatch carried similar hype into their UFC debuts.
Thatch also matched McGregor in his debut performance and made an equally emphatic statement with a vicious TKO win.
To make matters even stranger, both the Irishman and the Colorado native pocketed “Knockout of the Night” bonuses in their debuts.
If McGregor arguably represents the most talked about young fighter in the UFC, Thatch has to signify a close runner-up.
Hype aside, though, which young gun, the 25-year-old McGregor or the 28-year-old Thatch, has the better ingredients to make a title run in their respective division?
McGregor and Thatch showed little of their grappling abilities in their debuts, although the Irishman needed his takedown prowess to score a win over Max Holloway in his second fight with the company at UFC Fight Night 26. Afterward, McGregor revealed that he suffered a tear to his anterior cruciate ligament early in the fight—a mishap that forced him to improvise his game plan.
McGregor and Thatch are each gifted strikers who use their wrestling chops to keep fights in the upright position. Not only did both men manage to stay relaxed and confident in brutal standup exchanges in their debuts, but they also both proved that they’re natural finishers.
During a post-fight interview with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, Thatch, who TKO’d Justin Edwards in just 1:23, said he acknowledged the significance of the opportunity but didn’t let that get in the way of him having fun.
“[It’s] obviously a bigger deal,” Thatch said. “It’s the best organization in the world, but at the same time, I had a blast with it. I was enjoying everything from the crowd to the amazing Octagon that was there and the crowd [listening] to his music.”
Naturally, Thatch and McGregor, who each entered the UFC on impressive eight-fight winning streaks (all finishes), both bypassed the typical first-time Octagon jitters.
Thatch explained his relaxed demeanor and admitted that fighting away from Colorado, where he’s fought six times, eased his mind.
“I had fought at home in front of my family and friends,” Thatch said. “I was the main event, and this being the undercard was not as much pressure as being at home in front of thousands of your fans and friends and family, so it wasn’t quite as scary. I enjoyed it a lot more.”
Eerily similar fighting styles, personalities and track records make McGregor and Thatch deserving of the premature attention they’ve garnered.
As for who will make the most noise in their respective divisions, that distinction will probably go to the healthier of the two. At this point it seems to be Thatch, but as McGregor knows, that could change in an instant.
Martin Kampmann and Carlos Condit provided a wonderful display of all-around mixed martial arts skill last night in the main event of UFC Fight Night 27. It was unfortunate that one man had to come up on the losing end of the bout as both showed a seri…
Martin Kampmann and Carlos Condit provided a wonderful display of all-around mixed martial arts skill last night in the main event of UFC Fight Night 27. It was unfortunate that one man had to come up on the losing end of the bout as both showed a serious improvement in some of the areas which have let their game down.
Martin Kampmann, whom I criticized last week as one of the slowest starters in the business, hid his usual wake up period by moving straight to his severely underappreciated wrestling. From the start of the bout he was on Carlos Condit, weighing him down like a bag of cement. Rushing Condit to the fence with a single leg, Condit pummeled in an underhook and looked to escape his hips from the fence on that side.
Kampmann sucked his hips in close to Condit’s and hit an inside trip on the second attempt on the side on which Condit had his underhook.
Condit rose to the occasion and showed once again why he has one of the better guards in MMA. While he didn’t come too close to submitting Kampmann, he did effectively eliminate Kampmann’s chances to land heavy ground-and-pound. And of course most good guard players will tell you that guard retention is most of the game.
Every time Kampmann took a step forward in passing guard Condit would push off the cage with his feet or invert himself and get underneath Kampmann, causing a scramble which ended with Kampmann achieving little. The next time Kampmann looked to be passing guard, Condit pushed away and turned his back, scrambling back to his feet but ultimately being pulled back down and having back control secured upon him.
Condit’s willingness to turn his back to make a scramble is definitely worthy of applause as it’s certainly a brave thing to do against one of the division’s best opportunists. Condit eventually managed to shake free and get to top position though.
Much of the first round was spent wrestling in similar exchanges but Condit began to do a better job of breaking free from Kampmann’s clinch. Every time he did so he would land a few good elbows to the head and make Kampmann regret clinching.
The single leg takedown which Kampmann hit at the end of the first round was absolutely textbook, though. Picking up the leg he ran to the fence and used Condit rebounding from the fence to feed into his running the pipe and dumping Condit on his back.
Kampmann began to have success on the feet with his jab but ultimately became a little one note in his movement as he rushed straight at Condit. Condit sidestepped one such offensive and countered with a thudding right straight which slowed Kampmann a little.
The third round proved, once again, why Team Jackson—Winkeljohn is so successful at the heights of MMA competition, and more importantly the brilliant relationship between the eyes of Mike Winkeljohn and the actions of Carlos Condit.
Between the second and third rounds Mike Winkeljohn pointed out to Condit on film that every time Condit attacked, Kampmann covered with his lead elbow and loaded up his right hand. Winkeljohn implored Condit to fake with his right and instead attack Kampmann’s undefended right side with “Hook, elbow or fall off kick. Lunge, fall off, lunge, fall off.”
We can assume that this refers to the left high kick which Condit caught Georges St. Pierre with as he immediately went about making it land against Kampmann. The real key in turning the fight in the third round seemed to be Condit’s left hook, however, which was noticeably less wide than usual and on the money almost every time.
Condit would flick a jab or fake a right hand and immediately close the door with a left hook or a step out to his right with a left high kick. The high kicks became more effective as the round wore on but none of them had the sort of impact which Condit landed on St. Pierre with. The left hook, however, seemed to paralyze Kampmann.
Usually when Kampmann sees a right hand coming he will raise his left elbow, turn more side on and prepare his own right hand as a counter. Winkeljohn observed that when Kampmann does this (and he does this in pretty much all of his fights, so Condit had plenty of time to prepare) his right side is unguarded.
Of course even when he was loading up, Kampmann’s right hand was never more than a couple of inches from his jaw, but it is more that he was clearly not ready in his attitude or mindset to defend himself. When Kampmann catches a right hand, he instinctively comes back with his own. These kind of pinpoint counters help him easily hurt men like Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez, but against a fighter who has a feinting game and a corner like Condit it can be exploited.
Left hooks and high kicks connected more and more frequently, not just when Kampmann was loading up, but after he had thrown his right hand as well. After battering Kampmann through the third round, Condit almost locked in the rare “Ninja Choke” as Kampmann attempted a takedown, but Kampmann spun and gave up his back to escape.
In the final stanza it was the left hook which once again turned the course of the fight. Condit threw a left high kick, followed by a left middle kick, and a right straight. This instigated an exchange and as Condit closed the door with his left hook he found Kampmann’s unguarded chin again and put Kampmann on wobbly legs.
Here Kampmann reverted to the flaw I pointed out last week (which he had only shown a few times previous in this fight) as he backed himself onto the cage. Kampmann has nothing from there and wasn’t looking to tie up or take Condit down. Instead he covered up, which is never effective in MMA, and was stopped by Condit’s flurries.
Both men showed enormous improvement in this bout and as I have said it was the type of bout where you’re sad to see one man come out as the loser. Kampmann’s recognition that he would need to wrestle early and often was a brilliant one, but once again it was his standup technique which got him into trouble, this time because of a much higher-level opponent and smaller opening than in his previous bouts.
In just a few days the UFC will be hosting another event headlined by Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis and I will be back to talk about that shortly after. If you haven’t yet read my preview or my interview with Benson Henderson, please make sure to.
Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By.
Apparently pulling off a Georges St-Pierre or Johny Hendricks-like game plan on Carlos Condit takes extraordinary wrestling chops and a never-ending gas tank.
Just when Condit started to find his groove in the takedown defense department, Martin K…
Apparently pulling off a Georges St-Pierre or Johny Hendricks-like game plan on Carlos Condit takes extraordinary wrestling chops and a never-ending gas tank.
Just when Condit started to find his groove in the takedown defense department, Martin Kampmann began to fade in his attempt to execute a high-paced wrestle-heavy game plan at UFC Fight Night 27 on Wednesday.
Kampmann got off to an uncharacteristically quick start against Condit in their main event bout, pushing the pace and scoring on four of five takedown attempts in the first round.
Condit, however, minimized damage from the bottom position, kept his composure and then unleashed his typical high-volume, unorthodox striking assault on “The Hitman.”
The ploy paid major dividends for “The Natural Born Killer,” who stuffed eight of Kampmann‘s 10 takedown attempts following the first round.
The turnaround began in Round 2 when Condit stymied Kampmann on each of his five takedown attempts. In the process, ConditoutstruckKampmann 37-19 in the round.
During the post-fight interview, Kampmann admitted that after the first round, he was essentially running on fumes.
I got the fast start I wanted. I got it off the bat, but I gassed myself out completely after the first round. I didn’t feel I had nothing left. I just went into survival mode. I felt I was just dead tired after that first round. I could feel Carlos kept pushing a strong pace and I wanted to keep pushing, too, but I didn’t have gas in the tank.
Condit shucked off two of Kampmann‘s three shots in the third round, and then poured it on by outstriking The Hitman 63-8.
The Natural Born Killer polished The Hitman off in the fourth by landing 15 significant strikes in the first minute of the round. Condit ultimately dropped Kampmann along the fence and landed a few vicious knees from the clinch to prompt referee Herb Dean to intervene just 54 seconds in.
Kampmann obviously tried to duplicate the blueprint produced by St-Pierre and Hendricks in their recent unanimous decision wins over Condit. Unfortunately for Kampmann, he didn’t realize how tiring that brand of game plan can get, especially against an ultra-feisty opponent like Condit.
“The faster you start, the faster you’re going to get tired, too, right?,” Kampmann said. “I wanted to come out and start good. I felt good in the first round, [and] I got the takedowns I wanted. I didn’t get the finish I wanted and I got tired, and I couldn’t keep up with the pace he was going at. That’s how he won.”
Carlos Condit rebounded from losing the first round to absolutely mug Martin Kampmann at UFC Fight Night 27.
After Kampmann’s wrestling success in the first five minutes of the fight, Condit defended well. That allowed him to bust Kampmann’s face …
Carlos Condit rebounded from losing the first round to absolutely mug Martin Kampmann at UFC Fight Night 27.
After Kampmann’s wrestling success in the first five minutes of the fight, Condit defended well. That allowed him to bust Kampmann’s face up until he got the TKO finish early in the fourth.
Ranked No. 2 in the division, there are a lot of options for Condit’s next fight. However, he has recently lost to both Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks. Therefore, while he may deserve the next title shot, fans generally want new challengers. That puts Condit in a tricky situation.
With such depth in the division, there is a plethora of top-tier talent to throw him in against. A small winning streak would see Condit challenge for gold once more.
Here are five potential opponents for Condit’s next bout.
As the UFC rolled into Indianapolis for its second event ever on Fox Sports 1, the world’s largest MMA promotion did not disappoint with Wednesday’s Fight Night 27.
Headlining the event was a rematch between welterweight contenders Carlos Condit and Ma…
As the UFC rolled into Indianapolis for its second event ever on Fox Sports 1, the world’s largest MMA promotion did not disappoint with Wednesday’s Fight Night 27.
Headlining the event was a rematch between welterweight contenders Carlos Condit and Martin Kampmann, and boy did this fight deliver, taking home Fight of the Night honors in the process.
The former interim champion had trouble stopping the “Hitman’s” takedowns in the opening frame, but “The Natural Born Killer” started finding his groove with his striking in Round 2 and just kept turning up the heat from there. After a few more rounds of Condit picking him apart, the Greg Jackson product finally finished Kampmann with punches and knees for the TKO in the fourth round.
The entertaining performance turned in by Condit was just one of many exciting moments inside the Octagon Wednesday night. Here are three stars from UFC Fight Night 27.
Carlos Condit
As previously stated, the former interim welterweight champ turned in a masterful striking performance last night.
After two straight wrestling heavy losses to Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks, Condit showed a lot of improvements on the mats and was able to stop Kampmann‘s takedowns after the first round.
Even more impressive is how thoroughly “The Natural Born Killer” picked apart such a skilled kickboxer standing up.
Now that he’s back in the win column, I fully expect to see Condit make another run at the title as long as his takedown defense keeps improving.
Kelvin Gastelum
Winner of last season’s The Ultimate Fighter, Gastelum proved all the doubters wrong by upsetting heavy favorite Uriah Hall to take the show’s finale.
Moving down to welterweight for his sophomore appearance inside the Octagon, Gastelum put on an even more impressive performance by finishing Strikeforce vet Brian Melancon in the first round.
The TUFalum showed enormous power with his hands, rocking Melancon against the cage before sinking in the rear-naked choke for the win.
Gastelum appears to be even faster and stronger in his new weight class, and I expect his solid wrestling and heavy hands to pose a problem for many others in the welterweight division.
I’d like to see him take a step up in competition for his next fight as Gastelum has the potential to be a true rising star in the UFC.
TakeyaMizugaki
One of the unsung veterans to emerge victorious from Wednesday’s fights, WEC veteran TakeyaMizugaki extended his winning streak to three by defeating the heavily hyped Erik Perez.
The Japanese star impressed me with his willingness to trade hands with the powerful “Goyito,” as Mizugaki‘s more technical strikes and ability to stuff many of Perez’s takedown‘s earned him the nod. Despite eating some heavy shots from the Mexican bantamweight, the former Shooto rookie of the year kept his composure and utilized an excellent and patient game plan to take the win.
Winning four of his last five fights, Mizugaki may finally be hitting his stride as a mixed martial artist and may be on the verge of making a run in the talent-filled 135-pound division.
They have similar records and fighting styles and, coincidentally, featherweight 