AT. THE. HORN. @CarlosCondit
dropped Court McGee at the end of the first round at
#UFCFightIsland4 pic.twitter.com/XR0UG1w11q— ESPN MMA (@espnmma)
October 4, 2020
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There were probably quite a few fans watching
UFC on ESPN 16 who never saw Carlos
Condit at his peak.
One of the sport’s most reliable action fighters for most of his
career, the New Mexico native is a former World Extreme
Cagefighting titlist and ex-UFC interim champ who has a laundry
list of memorable bouts on his resume. Heading into his matchup
with Court McGee
on Saturday, Condit had fallen on hard times, losing his last five
Octagon appearances.
“The Natural Born Killer” shook off a slow start to end that skid,
earning a unanimous decision victory over McGee in a preliminary
welterweight bout at the Flash Forum in Abu Dhabi. It was Condit’s
first victory since May 30, 2015.
On the heels of losses to Robbie
Lawler and Demian Maia
in 2016, Condit mentioned on multiple occasions that he was leaning
toward retirement. Despite a prolonged stretch of struggles, Condit
seems to more passionate about competing than he was then.
“Competing at this level for a long period of time, you’re going to
have wins and losses. I’m still about it. I still have fire in my
gut,” Condit said. “This fits right into the craziness of 2020 for
me. It’s been a while since I’ve had a win. I haven’t fought in
almost two years. It feels really good.”
“I love this. I love what I do—win or lose. I’m a competitor.
I come here to show up and get my hand raised.”
Condit took a little while to get warmed up on Saturday, but he
permanently turned the tide when he floored McGee with a right hook
at the Round 1 horn. From there, he was able to outland his veteran
foe over the course of the final 10 minutes, as McGee fought with
what appeared to be a broken nose the rest of the way.
“I just wanted to continue to push the pace,” Condit said. “I saw
that his nose looked like a boomerang. So I was going to try and
target that more. Court stood up and I don’t think he knew exactly
what happened. I think he thought the fight was over.”
Condit offered McGee a different look in the Octagon, keeping his
opponent off balance by adopting a southpaw stance. He believes
that helped prevent McGee from settling into his traditional
grinding style.
“Part of [the game plan] was to fight long southpaw,” Condit said.
“For whatever reason, Court didn’t shoot much. He’s got a really
good wrestling game. He’s really good at pushing guys up against
the fence and grinding them out. I think that threw him off. He
wasn’t able to shoot very much.”
