Martin Kampmann's one who got away? Georges St-Pierre

Martin Kampmann

Martin Kampmann’s decision to retire from MMA didn’t come as a surprise to many. After all, the veteran hadn’t stepped into the UFC octagon since Aug. 28, 2013.

When speaking with MMAjunkie Radio, the 33-year-old explained that the idea of retirement has been on his mind for some time.

“I’ve kind of known for a while,” Kampmann said. “It’s a tough decision to make because I love fighting and I’ve been doing it for so long. I’ve had my share of injuries and I feel that my last couple of fights I’ve been competing with injuries. That means that you don’t always put on your best performance and it’s easier to get more injuries. I feel that I took a good, long break, but I feel that it’s time to hang up the gloves.”

While Kampmann (20-7 MMA, 11-6 UFC) is still relatively young in age, he has quite a few miles on his body. With 17 fights in the UFC, he is more experienced than most his age.

But Kampmann’s body simply wasn’t holding up. He cited concussions as an issue when speaking with MMAjunkie Radio in January 2014. But stressed that there were more physical ailments than that behind his decision to retire during his most recent appearance.

“I’ve been having injuries besides concussions,” Kampmann said. “I’ve had concussions before. When you fight MMA, it’s easy to get concussed. But I’ve had four knee surgeries as well. I’ve had surgery on both of my hands. I’ve had my share of injuries. I took a good, long break and still do train once in a while, but it’s not like I wake up and think I’m feeling my best. I think if you want to fight, the best thing is feeling at your best and not pushing yourself through nagging injuries.”

In his lengthy UFC career, which began at UFC Fight Night 6 in August 2006, Kampmann fought a who’s who of top fighters. In fact, seven men he faced in the octagon went on to fight for or hold a championship.

Kampmann, however, not got into the cage to fight for the title. And that leaves the one name on his list that he never got a chance to fight.

“Georges St-Pierre was the champ for a long time in the welterweight division when I was competing and I was very close to getting a title shot a lot of times,” Kampmann said. “Obviously, that was a fight I was always hoping to get and striving and working hard to get, but I never got the fight. I thought a couple times I was close. I was also close to getting a shot at middleweight. (St-Pierre) was the king of the division. He was beating all the best guys, obviously that was the fight I wanted to have.”

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