Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) proved that its second event on FOX Sports 1 would be a doozy, complete with knockouts, submissions and everything between.
In the main event, a bloodied Martin Kampmann could not repeat history, succumbing to Carlos Condit in a grueling affair that headlined UFC Fight Night 27 (check out full results here). Kampmann started off strong and looked quite promising, but as the later rounds commenced, his counterpart had the experience he lacked.
And "Natural Born Killer" ultimately proved too much for the Dane to handle.
Unfortunately, in a sport like MMA, each bout can only have one winner and one loser. Earning a victory inside the world-famous Octagon is the highest of highs, while suffering a defeat in front of millions of viewers can be the lowest of lows.
Every competitor who steps foot in the eight-walled cage is looking for that moment of glory. Some capture it, others don't.
There were several shining stars at UFC Fight Night 27, including successful promotional debuts, inspiring comebacks and competitors who needed a win more than anything to save their title hopes. With that said, it's time to name the biggest winner and lowliest loser from the event at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Here we go:
Biggest winner: Carlos Condit
Condit said his back was against the wall and he desperately needed the win to avoid losing three straight fights. He may have been the one to start slow but he was the one who finished stronger than anyone could, stopping Martin Kampmann in the fourth round of their main event rematch last night (Wed., Aug. 28, 2013).
This win propels Condit back at the top and although the welterweight division has a handful of contenders right now, Condit is still the man to beat, and perhaps the best fighter in the division besides Georges St. Pierre and Johny Hendricks -- the two men who will meet in the main event at UFC 167 and both delivered Condit his last two losses.
Condit also finds the redemption he was looking for, as Kampmann's win in 2009 at Fight Night 18 is now erased from his memory and he can focus on the big fights --because he has earned them with his consistent and ferocious displays -- that will get the title back around his waist. Only this time, the interim tag will not be presenting itself, as "The Natural Born Killer" looks to face whoever steps in his way while he chases the UFC welterweight championship.
Runner Up: Dylan Andrews
Andrews may not have had his UFC fate sealed with a loss against Papi Abedi last night since he was 1-0 in the promotion and had not lost since 2010, but he was behind on the scorecards in a pretty boring fight. Abedi looked too powerful for Andrews, catching him with some significant strikes and smothering him on the ground. However Abedi's own gameplan may have proven too costly for him as he showed signs of exhaustiveness in the third round and like a true fighter, Andrews turned it on.
Instead of doing much of the same type of work that failed him in the first two rounds, Andrews bolted out of the corner at the beginning of the third round and felt a sense of urgency. After Abedi continued to do what he found success in, Andrews capitalized on his foe's fatigue, clocking him with humongous shots and landed some brutal uppercuts that dropped Abedi as the Swede landed face forward and was knocked out by "The Villain."
Andrews is not precisely the most skilled or exciting fighter when it comes to his fellow middleweight counterparts but the way he was able to score a comeback knockout victory was super impressive and showed that no matter who counts you out, if you can believe in yourself that is all that matters.
Biggest Loser: Martin Kampmann
Kampmann shook his head in disapproval after he took a knee to the jaw and a few punches for good measure, sitting against the cage while Herb Dean saved him from Condit's onslaught. It is a tough loss to take for a man who looked great in round one, decent in round two, shaky in round three and unfortunate in round four.
Kampmann loses any bit of indication that he is ready to become a serious title challenger at welterweight. Although a drop down or a move up does not look possible for the "Hitman," he will go back to the drawing board and start from scratch -- working his way up to being a threat at 170 pounds if he can this far deep into his career.
A positive Kampmann can take out of this fight is that he did not start slow -- he immediately went for the takedown on Condit and continued to showcase his underrated grappling and ground skills. However as soon as "The Natural Born Killer" stuffed Kampmann's takedown attempts, "Hitman" virtually had nothing for his opponent while Condit got the better of the striking, stalking Kampmann until he got the fourth-round victory.
Kampmann will now need to think about his future, being 3-4 in his last seven bouts, losing big fights that should have lead him towards the title and taking a stinging amount of abuse judging from his facial scar tissue.
Runner Up: Hatsu Hioki
Hioki enjoyed a boatload of success in Asia, earning the moniker "Child of Shooto" because of his impressive stints in Shooto, Sengoku and even the defunct TKO promotion out of Quebec.
Hioki has not found that kind of similar success in the UFC. He won his first fight, a controversial one against George Roop and then outlasted Bart Palaszewski soon after, but Ricardo Lamas, Clay Guida and now Darren Elkins have handed him three consecutive losses and if that signals anything, it is that the UFC usually cuts ties with fighters who cannot get back to winning ways.
A promotional record of 2-3 is not exactly terrible, but with the sign of the times and arguably the oversaturation of fights -- alongside the amount of fighters in each division -- the near future does not look too bright for Hioki.
The most frustrating part about Hioki's downfall is that it fuels the argument for anyone who believes fighters that compete in Japan cannot hack it once they reach North America. This cannot be true for every competitor based out of Asia, but Hioki's only fights that were not in Japan before he joined the promotion were in Canada with his last one being five years ago. He suffers the same fate Norifumi Yamamoto and Michihiro Omigawa faced -- nearly unstoppable in Japan, but a shadow of their former selves on American soil.
For complete UFC Fight Night 27 results and blow-by-blow coverage of all the night's action click here.