No one has been on a crazier emotional roller-coaster ride as of late than Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight contender Carlos Condit.
"The Natural Born Killer" was supposed to fight B.J. Penn at UFC 137 back on Oct. 29, 2011. However, when Nick Diaz was pulled from the main event, Condit was granted the title shot against 170-pound champion Georges St. Pierre.
"Rush" then suffered an injury that would postpone the bout and keep Condit off of the Halloween-weekend card. The fight against St. Pierre was then rescheduled for UFC 143, but his shot was quickly taken away and given back to Nick Diaz after the Stockton scrapper called out the Canadian in the wake of his impressive win over "The Prodigy."
Condit was then offered (and accepted) a fight against the always dangerous Josh Koscheck, which was scheduled for the same Super Bowl weekend card on Feb. 4, 2012. Yet, because of another injury to Georges St. Pierre, Condit has once again been given a title shot.
Sorta.
This time, he is scheduled to face Diaz, in what will be billed as an interim UFC welterweight title fight scheduled for the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That's enough to drive a sane man crazy.
However, speaking to MMAFighting.com earlier today, Condit concedes that he just has to laugh at all the twists and turns that have been tossed his way, while also also talking about his upcoming title fight with Diaz.
Check it out:
"Seeing everything that's happened over the past couple months, I kind of just had to laugh. It's crazy, a lot of ups and downs but after all this turmoil and stuff, it ended up going my way. Whether it's an interim title or not, this is what the fans have been screaming for from the welterweight division. They're looking for exciting fighters, guys who go out and put it on the line and come too thrown down win, lose or draw. I think both Diaz and myself are those guys, but George St. Pierre is the champion and he will remain the champion until me or someone else beats him."
With Condit winning his last four in the Octagon, and winning 12 of his last 13 bouts dating back to the World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) days, he is more than deserving of a title shot.
Standing in his way is another streaking welterweight in Diaz, who has won 11 in a row and was the last man to hold the Strikeforce welterweight title. Diaz was specifically brought over into the UFC ranks to face St. Pierre, but because of a bad case of the injury bug (and absence from promotional appearances) the fight has yet to come to fruition.
Diaz made his re-debut at UFC 137, defeating Penn in a three round rout that saw the Cesar Gracie-trained fighter batter the Hawaiian for three rounds of pure stand-up action, earning a unanimous decision victory. Now both Condit and Diaz will finally have a chance to claim UFC gold as they will battle for the interim UFC welterweight title until "Rush" is fit to return to action.
Did the promotion make the right choice to brand the fight between Carlos Condit vs. Nick Diaz an interim title fight, or should "Rush" fork over the strap and have the opportunity to fight to earn it back to make it official?
Opinions, please.
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