Carlos Condit has held the WEC welterweight championship and an interim version of the UFC welterweight title, but has never held the “full” title in the big promotion. He’ll get his chance against current champ Robbie Lawler in the headliner of UFC 195 this weekend, and he spoke to MMA Fighting about how much he has riding on the bout. He even subtly hinted at the possibility of retirement depending on the outcome.
One amusing story that came up about his only pro boxing match – which almost ended up being against a man that just fought for the UFC lightweight title. He was asked by Ariel Helwani about a man named Donnell Wade, and that led to the tale:
“That was my only pro boxing fight, that I lost a split decision on. I cut weight – I was actually supposed to fight Donald Cerrone in a boxing fight. And something got lost in, you know, in communication. The guy didn’t show up, or he didn’t even know he had the fight. I’ve told him about it and he was like ‘I never knew I was supposed to fight you’.
So I cut weight to like 152, and then this other guy was like ‘oh, this guy will fight you’. But he’s a 185er, a big ole boy. My coach was like ‘Sure! Go ahead and fight him’. And I lost a split decision.”
Helwani said Wade is still around, and wants Condit to win so he can say he beat the UFC welterweight champion. Condit said he’s cool with that.
The other interesting part of the chat was at the end, when Ariel asked him about something he mentioned briefly a previous interview – that this is his last run, and the last one he has in him. Does he feel like this is it for him?
“It could be,” Condit said. “It could be. I feel like I’m towards the end of my career. And I feel like I’m coming up towards, you know, this fight being a climax in my career. I’m all in. Basically, I’m all in on this fight. I’m not looking towards anything else.
“It’s all or nothing for me.”
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