Former UFC interim champ Carlos Condit retires from MMA

Former UFC interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit, one of the most violent fighters in the promotion’s history, is calling it a career.

On Thursday, Condit’s manager, Malki Kawa of First Round Management, confirmed to MMA Junkie that “The Natural Born Killer” has decided to retire from the sport. MMA Fighting was first to report the news.

Condit (32-14 MMA, 9-10 UFC), 37, is hanging up his gloves after a professional career that dates back to September 2002 and includes 46 total fights. Condit was 18-4 when he made his WEC debut in January 2007 and proceeded to claim the promotion’s vacant welterweight title in just his second fight, a rear-naked choke submission of John Alessio.

Condit defended the WEC title three times and was still champion when the promotion was absorbed by the UFC in early 2009. Condit’s UFC tenure kicked off with a split decision loss to Martin Kampmann, but he rebounded with a five-fight winning streak. That included a split decision over Jake Ellenberger, followed by knockouts against Rory MacDonald, Dan Hardy and Dong Hyun Kim. His streak culminated with a unanimous decision win over Nick Diaz to claim the UFC interim welterweight title, which set up Condit for a title unifier against Georges St-Pierre.

Condit lost a unanimous decision to St-Pierre in November 2012 at UFC 154, and Condit never quite got back to his winning ways after that, going 4-9 in his final 13 UFC fights.

Injuries forced Condit into two long layoffs (15 months and nearly two year). On a five-fight losing streak, Condit returned from the nearly two-year layoff to win back-to-back decisions over Court McGee and Matt Brown in late 2020 and earlier this year, respectively. Condit’s final fight took place on July 10 at UFC 264 where he lost a decision to Max Griffin.

Condit finishes his UFC career with the second-most fight night bonuses in promotion history (7).