UFC star Carlos Condit to visit Manila on Nov. 8

MANILA, Philippines – While there are persistent teasers and rumors that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is heading its way to the Philippines next year, one UFC superstar is scheduled to visit the country to promote the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA).

In partnership with ABS-CBN’s cable sports channel Balls, the world’s premier MMA organization is bringing Carlos Condit to Manila for a meet-and-greet session and public workout on November 8 at the Trinoma Activity Center in Quezon City.

The UFC has brought several top fighters to the Philippines in recent years, including Chuck Liddell, Georges St-Pierre, BJ Penn, Mark Muñoz, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Alexander Gustafsson, Cung Le and Urijah Faber.

Condit (29-8) made his first Octagon appearance in April 2009 at UFC Fight Night 18, where he dropped a very close split decision against Martin Kampmann. According to the statistics released by Fight Metric, the three-round contest was close enough to be ruled as a draw.

Following the disappointing defeat to Kampmann, Condit bounced back with a split decision victory over Jake Ellenberger and earned three-straight stoppages against the likes Rory MacDonald, Dan Hardy and Dong Hyun Kim, establishing himself as a contender for the UFC welterweight championship.

Due to the absence of then-champion St-Pierre courtesy of a knee injury, Condit faced Nick Diaz for the interim title at UFC 143 in February 2012.

The 6-foot-1 “Natural Born Killer” was awarded with a controversial unanimous decision to bring home the belt and set a title unification bout with St-Pierre.

Condit squared off with St-Pierre at UFC 154 in November 2013, but he bowed down to the talented French-Canadian combatant via five-round verdict.

Since his setback to St-Pierre, Condit had several attempts to re-insert his name in the championship lottery, yielding to Johny Hendricks via unanimous decision at UFC 158 in March 2013 before knocking out Kampmann in a rematch at UFC Fight 27 five months later.

The 30-year-old native of Albuquerque, New Mexico was last seen in action at UFC 171 this past March when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the middle of a rough three-round tussle versus Tyron Woodley.

Condit has been medically cleared to resume his MMA training by his doctors and eyes a return by first quarter of 2015.

Prior to his UFC stint, Condit also made waves in the now-defunct World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC), where he captured the promotion’s welterweight strap by stopping Hiromitsu Miura by fourth-round technical knockout at WEC 35 in August 2008. – Rappler.com