Condit on his upcoming title defense, trip to Afganistan

July 29th, 2008, 6:16 pm · 4 Comments · posted by CARLOS ARIAS

To check out the audio interview with Carlos Condit, click here.

WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit is set to make his third title defense against Hiromitsu Miura in one of the featured fights at WEC 35 on Sunday at 6 p.m. on Versus at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Condit-Miura is one of three title fights at WEC 35.

Condit, of Albuquerque, N.M., captured the WEC 170-pound title with a rear-naked choke over John Alessio at WEC 26, submitted Brock Larson with an armbar at WEC 29 and submitted Carlo Prater with a guillotine choke at WEC 32. He is 4-0 with four submission victories in the WEC.

I got a chance to interview Condit earlier this week. he talked about his upcoming fight, his trip to visit the troops in Afghanistan and his thoughts about th 170-pound weight class.

Here is what “The Natural Born Killer” had to say:

On his thoughts heading into his fight against Hiromitsu Miura:

“I’m really looking forward to this fight. I’ve been feeling real sharp in my training camp. I think it’s a pretty good opponent for me. He’s pretty tough. He’s a pretty well-versed striker and I’m looking to display some of my standup and striking skills against him.”

On his string of submission victories:

“It’s because … if you notice my opponents have been taking me down because I dont think they want to stand with me, so I’ve been getting submissions.”

On becoming more well-rounded with each fight:

“I’ve been well-rounded. That’s the thing. Ever since I first started, I pretty much had a good balance between my standup and my ground game. I just haven’t had a good chance to really show it (his striking) lately. I’m definitely improving, but I don’t know if I’m becoming more well-rounded. I think I’ve always been well-rounded.”

On his thoughts on Miura:

“First of all, he’s cutting from 185, so he’s a big dude. He’s pretty stocky. I’m sure he’s real strong. In the past, these guys like Brock Larson, who is bigger than me, and even Carlo Prater and John Alessio, it hasn’t done them a whole lot of good. I’ve done a good job neutralizing that size advantage. So other than that he is a pretty well-versed striker. He’s got powerful hands. He’s got good Judo throws. The thing that stands out most in my mind is he is real tough. Japanese fighters are real resilient and they have a lot of fortitude. he doesn’t quit at all.”

On riding the momentum of the Urijah Faber-Jens Pulver fight at WEC 34:

“The WEC does a great job of continuing to keep the interest and kind of raise the stakes every time.

“I don’t look at it as a competition as to which shows are bigger or whatever, but, yeah, it’s awesome. It’s great for all the fighters for them to continue to raise the bar.”

On going to Afghanistan to visit the troops with UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn, WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber and UFC middleweight Michael Bisping:

“It was an incredible trip, man. We got an extremely warm welcome from the troops, a great response. It was such an honor to go out there to visit them and see a little bit of what they go through from day-to-day, the sacrifices they make. It was a trip of a lifetime.”

On what the conditions were like in Afghanistan:

“As far as the weather, it is hot as hell out there. It was like 115 degrees with humidity. We would get up at like 6 or 7 in the morning and it was already like 90 degrees out. It was incredible. It was hot as hell.

“For the most part, actually, we did only stay on the bases. We flew from base to base. Outside the bases it was not safe. Different bases had different levels of how built up they were and how modernized they were. I don’t have anything to gauge it by. I’ve never really seen anything like that. So it’s kind of hard to describe.”

On how long of a trip it is from the U.S. to Afghanistan:

“It was 12 hours from (Washington) D.C. to Kuwait. We stayed in Kuwait a night and then it was a nother three hours on a military transport from Kuwait to Afghanistan. So all together it’s about 15 hours.”

On how they were received by the troops:

“Yeah, they recognized us. They definitely recognized B.J. because he probably has a little bit more notoriety than the rest of us. They definitely recognized us and even the ones that didn’t recognize us right off gave us mad respect. They do a lot of … they train Jiu-Jitsu and they train ‘combatives’ is what they call it. It’s similar concepts to what we do, sacrifice, dedication, warrior spirit, fortitude … you know, similar stuff. It kind of crosses the line for military to fighting.”

On the training sessions and demonstrations with the troops:

“We went around and did demonstrations. We had the opportunity to roll with their combatives team. We did a little standup sparring. It was great.

“They had some guys with a lot of potential.”

On the possibility of putting together an Armed Forces “The Ultimate Fighter” show:

“Actually, on the military channel I saw something like that. They had the combatives championships or something like that with all Army guys. They basically did MMA fights. I think that would be awesome because a lot of those guys are into it. It supplements what they do already as far as their training. I could definitely see that in the future.”

On the biggest thing he took away from his trip to Afghanistan and talking to the troops:

“The biggest thing for me was it kind of made me change my priorities quite a bit. It made me look at what’s really important and what we should really … a lot of times people get so hung up on the day-to-day stuff. You know, the everyday stuff that we stress about, whatever it may be. We should be more concerned about the things that are really important, our relationships with our family, friends, loved ones.

“The fact that we are able to see them every day and the fact that we have our health and our well being. There are young men and young women my age that are sacrificing, sacrificing being away from their family and loved ones, and sacrificing their health and sacrificing their lives. It kind of really put things in perspective.

“Another thing that stood out in my mind, what we see in the media and what we see in the news is a fraction of what really is going on. It’s a war, so, of course, there are bad things. But there are good things that are going on there. Whether it’s good or bad, the media doesn’t really report on anything. All you hear is numbers and statistics and that doesn’t give you any sort of view as to what is going on. Mostly, whatever views you do have are negative. Of course, it’s going to be negative. Nobody likes to be in conflict, in war, but it’s necessary to protect … note even protect, but to maintain our way of life, our freedom and freedom for people around the world.”

On his thoughts about the WEC’s welterweight division and where it fits in with Georges St. Pierre in the UFC and Jake Shields in EliteXC:

“There are some tough dudes. They (the WEC) are still working on their roster. They’re still working on filling out their welterweight division. Obviously, they are not as strong as the UFC. But I feel, me being the champion, I can deal with any one of those guys in the UFC and beat quite a few of them and give any of them a run for their money. There are some tough guys (in the WEC). My last three fights have been against pretty legit competitors. This guy I’m fighting on Sunday is very tough as well. It’s not as stacked as the UFC’s welterweight division, but there is some talent.”

On his ultimate goals in MMA:

“I want to be on top. I want to be No. 1. I really do. I think that I have the talent. I know I have the work ethic and the killer instinct to get there. I just want to continue to climb the ladder and get as close to the top. When I retire, I want to be known as one of the greats.”

On if he has to fight St. Pierre at some point to prove he is the best welterweight:

“If he is still the man when the time comes, then yeah. Whoever is the man and No. 1 at that time, then that is who I have to beat. If that happens to be GSP, then that’s who I have to fight.

“I want to fight anyone who is above me. I don’t put too much thought into who I’m going to fight next or anything like that. I focus on improving myself and being the best that I can be. I know that if I reach my potential, then I can beat those guys, I can beat guys like GSP, I can beat guys like (Jon) Fitch. I can fight any of these guys. When I reach my prime, it’s going to be a scary, scary thing for everybody in the welterweight division.”

On where he feels he is at this stage of his career:

“I have improvements that need to be made. What I said about beating Fitch and beating GSP, you know, right now, I’m probably not there, yet. Honestly, I’m probably not there, yet. But I have time to grow. I’m continuing to build my career. I’m continuing to build myself as a fighter and as a athlete. I have the dedication and I have the drive to get there and I will be there.”

CARLOS CONDIT ROLLS WITH TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN

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CARLOS CONDIT HANGS WITH TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN

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