The Great Dane: Martin Kampmann inducted into ‘The Michael Bisping Hall of Almost Fame’

This is the newest inductee into the Michael Bisping Hall of Almost Fame. You can read the rules for induction here.

Martin ‘Hitman’ Kampmann Stats & Numbers:

Height: 6′ 0″Reach: 71.5″Stance: Orthodox

Career Record: 20 – 7 (8 KO/TKO, 7 Sub, 4 Decision, 1 DQ)UFC Record: 11 – 6 (5 sub, 2 KO)VS Top 10 Opponents: 4 – 4VS Champions/Contenders: 3 – 5

494 Significant Strikes Landed 679 Total Strikes Landed 2:34:24 Total Fight Time

2x Fight of the Night winner2x Submission of the Night winner1x Knockout of the Night winner

Why is he in the Hall?

Martin Kampmann was a two-division standout for the entirety of his career. He entered the UFC as the Cage Warriors middleweight champion and went on to win his first four bouts in the octagon, including a decision victory over future middleweight title challenger Thales Leites. After losing his next fight to middleweight contender Nate Marquardt, Kampmann then dropped down to welterweight, where he put together one hell of a resume and remained a Top 10 fighter until his retirement. Kampmann has one of the 10-15 best resumes in UFC welterweight history but never challenged for a belt. He was a damn fine fighter and should be recognized for that.

What was his game like?

Here are two facts:

1)Martin Kampmann is a former Danish Thai boxing champion, a fact which is referenced in every one of his UFC fights.2)Martin Kampmann was out-struck in almost every one of his fights.

At least for portions of them. Seriously, go back and watch all of his fights. The way Joe Rogan lauded Kampmann’s technique you would think he was the second coming of Saenchai. But Kampmann got marked up by Thales Leites(! and this is young, almost entirely grappling based Thales Leites we are talking about here) in the first round before wearing him down in the remaining 2 rounds. He has been stopped 4 times in his career and all of them came from strikes compared to his 7 stoppage victories, only 2 of which came due to strikes only 1 of those being a result of standing strikes. Kampmann has an 11-6 record in the UFC yet only landed 494 significant strikes while absorbing 504. The truth of the matter is Martin Kampmann knew how to strike but his MMA bread was buttered in the grappling department.

Wrestling/Clinch

Kampmann was an above average defensive wrestler, boasting a 78% takedown defense in the UFC. That percentage may be higher but for the fact that Kampmann’s favorite weapon was a guillotine choke thus when an opponent would shoot on him he occasionally ceded the takedown in an effort to snatch up the submission. He has an excellent front headlock series which he could turn either into a fighting ending guillotine or use to scramble to his opponent’s back. The only person to have prolonged wrestling success against Kampmann was Jake Shields and we will discuss that fight in just a moment.

Offensively, Kampmann was not a great outside wrestler. Only occasionally would he look to grab a snatch single and when he did it was not pretty. Most of his takedowns came out of the clinch where he was decent and changing levels to finish off a single or double.

Kampmann excelled in clinch tie-ups, particularly the over/under. Defensively, he constantly turned his opponents and rarely ever found himself smashed against the cage for prolonged periods of time or taken down of a clinch tie-up.

Offensively, Kampmann had a variety of trips and foot sweeps which he used to great effect. When Drew McFedries was jawing him in their fight, Kampmann hit an over/under trip to take him down and then submit him. Against Rick Story, an NAIA national runner-up in wrestling and very good MMA wrestler, he hit a beautiful Hiza Guruma (or at least that’s what I’m calling it, I don’t pretend to be an expert in Judo so if I’m incorrect please inform me) multiple times. The clinch is also where Kampmann was able to use his Thai knees, likely his most effective single strike.

Ground game

On the ground, Kampmann wasn’t a nightmare on top but he was certainly not someone you wanted on top of you. His top position grappling was skewed much more towards finding submissions than doing damage. This single minded focus resulted in Kampmann accruing the fifth most submission attempts per minute in UFC welterweight history but also prevented him from putting away opponent he may have stopped otherwise.

However, his top control was very good and once you were under him, you likely stayed there for the remainder of the round. He didn’t employ a diversity of passes but when standing over an opponent in guard, Kampmann almost always was able to shuck the legs and pass into side-control or half guard. Once there, he had excellent shoulder pressure, driving down into the face of his opponent and setting up for arm-triangle choke he favored.

On bottom was probably Kampmann’s weakest area, which speaks volumes to his skills considering this is a man who escaped mount from Jake Shields multiple times. His bottom game was predominantly centered around not absorbing damage, which he was very good at. However, he wasn’t much of a sweep/submit threat once on bottom and showed little urgency in getting back up to his feet. The one real threat Kampmann posed from his back was his guillotine choke but that came more during …

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