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MARTIN KAMPMANN Dog Day Afternoon
© Marc Wickert
All photos
copyright 2004 Zuffa LLC
It’s a hot Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas with temperatures reaching up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit when Knucklepit catches up with Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann and his shepherd-rottweiler cross, Kara, who is playing with some of her tail-wagging friends at the local dog park. This is where Martin likes to chill out when he’s not working his trade before thousands of cheering MMA fans in packed houses, or the millions of p-p-v viewers around the globe who love to watch this exciting Danish-born athlete notch up more victories inside the world-famous gladiators’ sanctum, the Octagon. Born in Aarhus, Denmark, Martin commenced his ultimate fighting career as an amateur in Europe’s highly-respected Shooters MMA, where he achieved an 8-1 career before going pro and making his Octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 6, choking out Crafton Wallace in the first round. Now with an impressive MMA record of 17-3-0, Kampmann is one of the planet’s leading welterweights, showing more and more depth and quality to his fight game with every UFC appearance. During his normal eight-week cycle prior to competition, Martin trains two to three times a day on weekdays and once on Saturdays, with Sunday being his rest day. A typical Wednesday would see “The Hitman” doing strength and conditioning with Jake Bonacci from 8-10am, BJJ with Robert Drysdale from 11-1, and wrestling at Xtreme Couture from 4-6 in the afternoon. But after chalking up a victory over Paulo Thiago at UFC 115, Martin’s workouts aren’t quite as intense. “Right now I do whatever I feel like – I don’t have a set schedule. I train every day still, but I’m not on my fight schedule. This morning I was doing jiu jitsu and this afternoon I did wrestling with Brian Keck and all the Couture guys,” says Kampmann.
Martin Kampmann applies a “death choke” on Jacob Volkmann Martin, when did you move to the US? “I got my first fight here in 06 and I decided to move here in 07.” Do you think the stoppage of your bout with Paul Daley was justified? “I think it was early… I was definitely rocked, but I’ve been hurt worse before and come back… I think it was early, but I’m more disappointed in myself for even putting the referee in the position where he had to decide it.” You’ve just moved on from it? “Yeah, I can’t change it now and it would be nice to get a rematch, but Daley’s not in the UFC anymore and it doesn’t look like he’ll be there for a little, so not much I can do about it.” Do you intend staying at welterweight, or will we see you returning to middleweight? “I’m comfortable at welterweight and the cut is really easy; I could even make 155. I’m joking about that but I’m happy at welterweight. If I went back to middleweight I’d need time to lift weights and put some muscle on. Right now I enjoy fighting at welterweight.” You have a karate and Thai-boxing base. Where did you pick up your ground skills? “I was training ground as well for a long time. I started training shootfighting and submission wrestling, so I’ve been doing that for a long time as well.” You displayed some savage ground’n’pound skills against Jacob Volkmann, and you were happy to stay on the floor with the All-American wrestler. Did that aspect of the fight give you extra confidence? “He’s a good wrestler and I didn’t want to go and wrestle with him, but I knocked him down – I didn’t decide to take him down, and I’m happy to fight on the ground. I feel confident with my ground game. I enjoyed getting that submission over him especially, because he said before the fight there was no way I was going to be able to submit him, so I was real happy to get that submission.” Your victory over Jacob was listed as being by guillotine. I believe you call it a “death choke”. Is it more of a front naked choke than a guillotine? “It’s like a rear naked choke, but only reversed, so I guess you can call it a reversed rear naked choke… It doesn’t really… They can call it whatever they want. I’m just happy to get the win.” Can you give a brief rundown of your bout with Paulo Thiago, please, Martin? “Well, I didn’t expect him to try to shoot at me; I expected him to swing that big punch. But I think I kinda frustrated him a little bit by sticking the jab in his face before he changed his mind and wanted to take me down instead. But his shot wasn’t that good and I stuffed his shots and worked on the ground from there. I was real pleased with my performance, and I was happy with the win, but disappointed I didn’t get the finish I wanted.”
Martin Kampmann uppercuts Paul Thiago You’ve partly covered my next question, but Paulo is known for his powerful punches. Do you believe you dismantled his game plan by picking him apart with your more technical and precise punches? “I was going in and out, trying not to stay in the pocket and swing with him. I’ve done that before and it’s not a smart game plan. I just wanted to go in, and like you said, pick him apart. I think that frustrated him a lot before he tried to take me down.” Then you frustrated him on the ground. “Yeah, that didn’t work either.” Do you think you surprised a lot of people with your dominance of BJJ blackbelt Paulo Thiago on the ground? “I think a lot of people underestimated me and, hopefully, they’re not going to underestimate me again. I feel confident… I feel secure in my wrestling and jiu jitsu skills. I think I proved that. I was happy with my performance, yeah.” What can people look forward to when attending your seminar in Odense, Denmark , on August 9? “I know some of the guys who have been training there and I learnt a lot of stuff over here in the US – that’s why I moved here – to improve as a fighter, and hopefully I can help the guys back home step up their game, and have more guys in Denmark competing at a higher level. I’m going to try to help them with anything I can do.” Do you know when you’ll be returning to the Octagon? “I’m thinking sometime in October, but I don’t know for sure. I’d like to get on a card in October as I’m going to Denmark soon. I’ll also be training in Denmark; however it’s also a vacation and I want to see my family: I haven’t been there in almost a year, and I want to have a good training camp when I get back here in Vegas.” Martin Kampmann’s sponsors? “Hitman Fightgear and I have a good relationship with all the guys at Xtreme Couture, so a big thanks to them as well.” Martin, is there anything you’d like to add? “Thanks to all the people who support me and to all the fans.”
Martin Kampmann out grapples the grappler
For
more on Martin Kampmann:
www.martinkampmann.tv.
Knucklepit’s review of Martin Kampmann vs. Paulo Thiago: http://www.knucklepit.com/ufc115-review.htm.
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