Martin Kampmann

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1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC Career
4 Mixed martial arts record
5 Gallery
6 External links

Profile

Martin "The Hitman" Kampmann (born April 17, 1982) is a Danish professional mixed martial artist who trains out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He stands 6 ft. tall and fights in the welterweight (170 lbs.) for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Early Career

Martin Kampmann made his professional mixed martial arts debut on February 15, 2003 against Gert Mannaerts in Denmark for the Viking Fight promotion. He defeated his opponent via TKO.

Kampmann continued his winning ways in his next three fights with TKOs over Dave Jones and Tony Vivas and a DQ win over Xavier Foupa-Pokam.

In his fifth professional fight he suffered his first career loss when he was stopped on cuts against UFC and PRIDE veteran, Andrei Semenov.

Kampmann got over that disappointment with two more TKO victories in his next two fights over Matt Ewin and Brendan Seguin.

Kampmann defeated Ewin again at a Cage Warriors event in July of 2005 before taking the Cage Warriors middleweight title in November of that year by submitting Damien Riccio with a rear naked choke in the second round.

In July of 2006, Kampmann fought for the ill fated WFA organization on their "King of the Streets" card. He faced and defeated Edwin Aguilar via TKO in the first round.

UFC Career

Kampmann was called up on short notice to replace Kalib Starnes in a fight against UFC virgin, Crafton Wallace at UFC Fight Night 6. The lack of preparation didn't stop him from impressing though as he submitted Wallace with a rear naked choke at just 2:59 of round 1.

At The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale, Kampmann was matched up against Brazilian jiu jitsu stand out and the undefeated Thales Leites. Leites dropped Kampmann early but when he was unable to do much to Kampmann on the ground he began to tire. Kampmann eventually took over and outworked Leites for the rest of the time and prevailed by unanimous decision.

Kampmann was given a chance to show off his impressive Thai boxing skills in his next fight at UFC 68 as he was matched up with Miletich brawler, Drew McFedries. Kampmann's skill was dwarfed by McFedries' power however and he was dropped and battered quickly by the Miletich product. Kampmann kept his wits about him though and secured a takedown on McFedries before slickly transitioning to an arm triangle choke that put McFedries to sleep at 4:06 of the first round.

At UFC 72, Kampmann was meant to be given the biggest test of his career when he was matched up with Rich Franklin in a No.1 contender fight. A devastating knee injury though to Kampmann ruined any chance of that and he was stuck on the sidelines for over a year rehabbing it.

He returned at UFC 85 in England against TUF 4 contestant, Jorge Rivera. Kampmann quickly submitted Rivera with a guillotine choke to get his career back on track.

Kampmann was given his chance to break back into the UFC middleweight elite again at UFC 88 when he was matched up with perennial contender, Nate Marquardt. Marquardt's striking surprised Kampmann however as Marquardt landed a head kick early that rocked the Dane. Marquardt backed Kampmann into the ropes and unleashed punch after punch before finally ending the fight with a hard right body shot.

The loss to the bigger Marquardt had Kampmann finally heeding many a pundits advice for him to drop down to a more natural weight class of 170 lbs.. Kampmann made the move and faced off against Alexandre Barros in his welterweight debut at UFC 93. Kampmann took his time before eventually scoring the TKO victory a little over midway through the second round.

Kampmann's next bout will be headlining UFC Fight Night 18 against the last ever WEC welterweight champ, Carlos Condit on April 1, 2009.