UFC 132's Carlos Condit recalls career-defining Rumble on the Rock tournament

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Former WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit continues his current UFC run when he meets Dong Hyun Kim at July's UFC 132 event.

It's another high-profile bout for one of the world's top-ranked 170-pound fighters.

But when choosing a single night that best launched him to stardom, Condit fondly remembers a star-studded Rumble on the Rock tournament. The 2006 event series took place in Hawaii, and many of the competitors continued or went on to legendary MMA careers.

"It really did (put me on the map)," Condit told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) when asked about the eight-man ROTR tourney. "Before that tournament, I was pretty unknown except for maybe regionally. After that fight, that's when I really started to make my mark."

For a now-defunct regional promotion, Rumble on the Rock pulled off a pretty amazing event. In addition to Condit, the star-studded field included notables such as UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, upcoming UFC title challengers Jake Shields and Yushin Okami, UFC and PRIDE veteran Frank Trigg, and former UFC champ Dave Menne.

Some thought Condit, who was then a little-known fighter from New Mexico, was being fed to his opening-round opponent: onetime UFC title challenger Renato Verissimo.

But Condit earned a swift 17-second knockout win over Verissimo and, a few months later, then pulled off a submission upset of Trigg in the semifinal round. That victory over the veteran Trigg provided Condit a valuable piece of info he's used throughout his career: Fighting like you've got nothing to lose can produce big things.

"I had watched him maybe a year or two earlier fighting in the UFC, and I was pretty impressed," Condit said of Trigg. "I wondered how somebody would beat him, and then, a short time later, I find myself matched up with him.

"At the time, I was young and didn't have anything to lose. That's how I approached the fights. Just go in there, do my thing and don't worry about anything else."

However, in the finale (and just a few days before his 22nd birthday), Condit suffered a loss to Shields in the tourney finale. (Shields advanced to the championship bout after topping Okami, who advanced to the semifinals after a disqualification win over Silva due to an illegal upkick.) However, the two upsets and the solid performance against Shields got Condit some major attention.

"I've always been scrappy like that," he said.

In fact, since mid-2006, Condit is 11-1, and the lone loss came via close split decision to Martin Kampmann during his UFC debut. His current three-fight UFC win streak nearly led to a replacement booking, which could have resulted in facing his biggest opponent yet: B.J. Penn.

"That was definitely a fight I was interested in," Condit said of the UFC 132 near-booking. "I have all the respect in the world for B.J. He's actually one of my favorite fighters, but I'm trying leave my mark on the sport. By fighting the best in the world is how I plan to do it.

"There was definitely talks. The fight was in the works, basically."

But like original opponent Jon Fitch, Penn, too, was forced off the July card due to an injury. That opened the door for a bout between Condit (26-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC) and undefeated Kim (14-0-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC).

"He's really, really tough," Condit said of his upcoming opponent. "The dude is legit. I saw him fight Amir Sadollah, and he has really, really good ground (skills), great position, and he's pretty well-rounded. His stand-up is pretty dangerous too."

Regardless, like all his other bouts, Condit plans to make it exciting.

But admittedly, he wouldn't mind the occasional lopsided performance.

"Sometimes, it'd be nice if they were a little less competitive with me on the winning side," he said. "But I guess that's just how I get things done."

For more on UFC 132, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.