LAS VEGAS – Carlos Condit has been a professional for a long time and has done many great things in mixed martial arts. He's held championships and scored victories over some of the finest fighters of his generation.
The hardcore fight fans, those dedicated souls who pay for every pay-per-view, who subscribe to Fight Pass and can tell you the reigning welterweight champion in virtually every regional promotion, flat out love him.
In his 16 fights under Zuffa's banner – five in the now-defunct World Extreme Cagefighting and 11 in the UFC – Condit has racked up five Fight of the Night awards, and two Knockout of the Nights.
He was 5-0 in the WEC, is 7-4 in the UFC and has gone a combined 5-1 in title fights.
His nickname is "The Natural Born Killer," which seems appropriate on so many levels. He faces Robbie Lawler on Saturday for the welterweight title in the main event of UFC 195 at the MGM Grand Garden in a fight which seems to be a can't-miss brawl.
If he's going to win the title, and erase the only black mark on an otherwise marvelous career, he may have to do everything but kill Lawler.
The champion is a powerful, dangerous man who is coming off arguably the greatest fight in the sport's history, a fifth-round finish of Rory MacDonald in a brutally bloody battle at UFC 189.
That many long-time observers believe Lawler-Condit could be nearly as good as that fight says something about the respect Condit has garnered in his 14 years in the business.
And he recognizes he's about to embark upon something that could be quite special.
"It's a fight, and they're going to lock us in a cage and me and Robbie Lawler are going to try to kill each other," Condit says matter-of-factly. "I think we're two of the most skilled guys in the division for sure, if not the sport. I think we're going to go in there and put on a display of violence and aggression that people won't soon forget."
Lawler, of course, is the reigning champion and a throwback to the UFC's early days. He's the closest thing there is today to a prime Chuck Liddell, the Hall of Famer who became one of Zuffa's first big stars with a crushing punch and a kill-or-be-killed attitude.
Lawler and Condit are similar in that they're classy, affable, no-b.s. guys who have worked in the shadows of other big names.
Lawler came up under Pat Miletich, the first UFC welterweight champion and a member of its Hall of Fame. His teammate was Matt Hughes, another Hall of Famer and the man that UFC president Dana White will tell you to this day was the company's best welterweight ever.
For all his prodigious skills, Lawler has never been embraced by the public the way that say, Tito Ortiz and Liddell were in the early days or how Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey have been today.
Even now, after beating Johny Hendricks to win the title and successfully defending it in the Fight of a Lifetime against MacDonald in July, Lawler exists in the shadow of long-time champion Georges St-Pierre.
St-Pierre left the sport following a controversial win over Hendricks at UFC 167, and surrendered the belt. He was never beaten for it, and rumors of a potential comeback are always big news.
Condit was the WEC champion and later won the UFC's interim welterweight belt by edging Nick Diaz at UFC 143. Diaz dominated that promotion and the post-fight talk, with many fans believing Diaz had been jobbed by the judges.
He, like Lawler, has played second fiddle to bigger names for much of his career. Condit lives and trains in Albuquerque, N.M. For a while, he toiled in the shadow of St-Pierre, who in a way put Jackson's Mixed Martial Arts on the map, and later of Jon Jones.
When Condit finally got the chance to face St-Pierre for the belt, it turns out he wasn't ready for the moment.
"In the GSP fight [at UFC 154 in 2012], I was very hyped up," Condit said. "That was four years ago. I've grown quite a bit since then. I lost my composure a little bit in the lead-up and during the fight and this time around, I'm enjoying the process, staying poised."
He understands the Herculean task ahead of him. Though St-Pierre is one of a handful of the greatest fighters to have ever lived, he didn't have the sheer punching power that Lawler possesses.
St-Pierre won his fights with great wrestling skill and an uncanny ability to pinpoint and then exploit an opponent's weaknesses with surgical precision.
Lawler is more like a guy swinging a sledgehammer. It may not be as precise or as surgical as the work of a guy like St-Pierre, but it does a lot more damage.
"Georges wasn't as dangerous [as Lawler], but he had this kind of mystique about him," Condit said. "Robbie, not so much, but he's more dangerous."
Lawler would be the first to admit that Condit is equally as dangerous. Condit is 6-0 with five finishes in Las Vegas, including that interim title-winning effort over Diaz.
They were supposed to fight originally in November in Melbourne, Australia, at UFC 193 underneath Rousey-Holly Holm. But Lawler had an injury and the bout was postponed for six weeks.
When it was rescheduled, Condit attended a news conference at the MGM Grand in suit and tie, looking very much like a businessman in town to close an important deal.
And in a very real way, that's exactly what he is.
"We all have our reasons why we're into this sport and why we do what we do," Condit said. "Ask 100 guys why they'd fight and you'd probably get 100 very different answers. But the one thing I think we all have in common is wanting to be the very best in the world. Not one of the best, or among the best, or maybe the best.
"These are the kinds of fights you have to win to do that. I feel like this opportunity is coming at a perfect time for me and I'm ready to put on a show and win that belt."
