Las Vegas, NV — After a five fight skid that ran from 2016 to 2018, former UFC interim champ Carlos Condit has finally put together back-to-back wins.
Victories over Court McGee and Matt Brown haven’t exactly sent him skyrocketing up the rankings, but Condit does find himself in the featured preliminary fight at UFC 264. A Conor McGregor card, no less, and in prime viewing position on ESPN — against Max Griffin, an opponent who loves to get into firefights.
There’s a reason for Condit’s recent success, among them, “really wanting to be here,” he told media outlets including Cageside Press during the UFC 264 media day this week. “I think there was a number of fights where I was one foot in, one foot out. For a number of reasons. But I think I got past that.”
This will be Condit’s third fight of the pandemic era, and he’s had a little bit of everything thus far. A full crowd will invade the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday in Las Vegas, and that’s something Condit welcomes.
“I have always fed off the crowd, and this is going to be a crowd,” he stressed. “Fighting with no crowd, then fighting with a little bit of a crowd, the second time in Abu Dhabi, and now— this one is going to be intense.”
What difference does a crowd make? “When you pull something off or you land something, it’s like having several thousand hype men,” Condit explained.
Condit recalled Thursday how Max Griffin landed on his radar. “I guess maybe a year ago, he called me out. I wasn’t aware, like— he’s a good fighter, but he was kind of up-and-coming. It was a year ago, year or two ago.” In terms of where Griffin shines, “he’s got great hands. I think that’s his bread and butter, his straight right and his aggressiveness.”
“The Natural Born Killer” also revealed a rather incredible bit of news, if true: he signed his most recent UFC contract this week. The day before media day. “I don’t know how unusual it is. I guess you’d have to ask somebody else. Ask the UFC. I only sign my contracts, they deal with everybody else’s. We were close, we were close on everything. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”
Watch the full UFC 264 media day scrum with Carlos Condit above. The event takes place this Saturday, July 10 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
