In Defense of Carlos Condit

MMA fans are a fickle bunch. I honestly believe (and it's just an opinion, I have zero facts to back this up) that the majority of MMA fans don't follow other sports and they're not used to the ups and downs that come along with following a team or fighter. That's why a fighter can lose and he was "never any good to begin with" or a fighter can win a couple in a row in devastating fashion and "he's never going to lose again." Now, I've been a Raiders fan all of my life...it's been a disaster for the most part but I've stayed loyal and will continue to stay loyal. Just because they have a bad season doesn't mean I can just jump to another team. Sports don't work that way. That being said, the level of hate that Condit has been getting lately is baffling.

Carlos Condit has 28 victories against 5 losses. Of those 28 victories, 26 (!) have been finished by either submission, TKO or KO. That's an insane finishing percentage. The 2 guys he didn't finish are Diaz and Jake Ellenberger. Diaz has been proven impossible to finish lately and Ellenberger is a top 3 welterweight in the world. These guys are not scrubs that he is fighting against. Most of the hate seems to be coming to him for 2 things. First, his fighting strategy against Nick Diaz was, to be honest, a letdown. Secondly, his decision to wait for GSP and not defend his interim title in the meantime has also ruffled some feathers in the MMA community.

Let's tackle the Diaz/Condit matchup first. Full disclosure: I was 100% rooting for Diaz in that fight. That being said, I scored the fight for Diaz 48-47. I scored rounds 1, 2 and 5 for Nick. Condit has been criticized for his strategy of running away from Diaz to then reset in the middle of the Octagon. My question is what else was he supposed to do??? Diaz likes to walk a guy down, trap him against the cage and start throwing bombs. Against BJ Penn, it worked because BJ would not get off the cage and his ego (plus his lack of cardio) wouldn't allow him to fight smart. While I personally didn't like the running Condit did at times, he had a great strategy and it worked. If anything, we should be blaming Diaz for never adjusting or not trying to get the fight to the ground until late in the 5th round. Hell, I enjoyed the fight, I just thought the wrong man won but I can honestly see a decision for either guy because the fight was hard to score. When fighters fight for points (I like ya Condit but you were point fighting against Diaz) it is confusing to score because what scores more? Jabs? Minor leg kicks? Walking a guy down? Takedowns? It's a kink in MMA that needs to be worked out and hasn't been yet. With due respect to Frankie Edgar, many of his recent fights have been almost impossible to score because of this.

Moving on, the second issue Condit is getting flack for is he has repeatedly stated his preference is to wait for GSP to get healthy. This is simple. Condit is a father and a husband who provides for his family. If Condit fights Ellenberger in the meantime, that show will top out around 400,000 ppv buys. If he fights GSP, that fight will approach 1 million guys. While I'm not privy to Condit's pay scale, my guess is that this is AT LEAST a difference of $500,000 of income for Condit. More ppv buys means more sponsorship $$ for Condit, more ppv buys means more $$ for Condit from the UFC and he will most likely get a huge discretionary bonus from the UFC if he pulls out the win. Fighters need to look out for themselves and their careers at the same time they are looking for the best challenges. What is telling about this situation is that Dana and Lorenzo have put zero public pressure on Condit to fight in the meantime. They agree with his decision and any of us would do the same thing if we were in Condit's place.

And just a quick tangent: I wanted to do a quick rundown of Condit's last 5 fights. He fought Ellenberger to a split decision victory in a wild brawl. He then rallied back and stopped Rory MacDonald via TKO, the Canadian's first and only loss in his career to date. He then became the first person to KO Dan Hardy in MMA competition. After that fight, he knocked out Dong Hyun Kim with a flying knee, which (again) is the first and only loss of Kim's career to date. And obviously the Diaz fight in February of 2012. Just something to think about.