DANNY ONEIL

Can’t stay away: Carlos Condit on ‘FIGHT! An MMA Podcast’

Aug 26, 2016, 2:56 PM | Updated: Aug 27, 2016, 12:02 pm

Carlos Condit (right) will fight Saturday for the first time since losing to Robbie Lawler in Janua...

Carlos Condit (right) will fight Saturday for the first time since losing to Robbie Lawler in January. (AP)

(AP)

A do-or-die moment.

That’s how Carlos Condit saw his fight with Robbie Lawler back in January, which would make this Saturday a resurrection of sorts for one of the most exciting 170-pound fighters in the UFC.

See, Condit didn’t win that fight against Lawler, who was then the champion. Condit certainly could have. Some thought he did, but the judges declared Lawler the winner, and Condit went about the process that every fighter faces.

“After that fight I had talked about retirement,” he said this week when Bob Stelton and I interviewed him for the sixth episode of “FIGHT! An MMA Podcast,” which is available on iTunes. “And that was something I was really considering. I wasn’t sure if I was going to take another fight at least for a little while. This fight presented itself, and it was just kind of the right time.”

That time is Saturday night in Vancouver, British Columbia when Condit will fight for the first time in nearly eight months, taking on a top contender in Demian Maia. The FOX broadcast begins at 5 p.m. PST with Condit and Maia fighting in the final bout of the evening.

“A fight with Demien Maia puts me back in contention,” Condit said.

Condit is one of my favorite fighters, from his deadpan staredown to his seemingly tireless attack to the fact that the dude has never been knocked out in 39 professional mixed-martial arts bouts. He also epitomizes a reality in MMA that boxing has never really picked up on: records don’t matter. Or at least they don’t matter as much as people think.

Condit is 30-9 in the 14 years that he has been fighting. He is 6-4 in the UFC, which is now the world’s top MMA promotion. Yet he is without question one of the very best fighters in the world. The guys he fights are also the best. Of his four losses, three have come to opponents who either were or would become UFC champions in the 170-pound division. Two were decision losses. One came when he suffered a torn knee ligament against Tyron Woodley, which necessitated a stop to that fight.

Woodley is now the champ, and after taking some time to think about his future earlier this year, Condit decided to make another run at the top.

“It’s hard to stay away from this thing,” he said. “I love it. It’s almost like an addiction. There’s no feeling like getting into the octagon and mixing it up with another trained professional fighter. The adrenaline before and afterwards, it’s terrible and wonderful, a ton of different things all wrapped up into one.

“It’s super intense, and I dig it. For me, it’s going to be hard to stay away.”

Danny O’Neil and Bob Stelton host a new episode of “FIGHT!” each Thursday. Subscribe on iTunes today. You can find the sixth episode here.

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Can’t stay away: Carlos Condit on ‘FIGHT! An MMA Podcast’