Longtime UFC Contender Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann Retires From MMA

Longtime UFC contender Martin Kampmann announced his retirement from MMA this week. “The Hitman” spoke about his decision to hang up the gloves and shorts with UFC.com.

Below is an excerpt from the interview where Kampmann talks about his decision to retire, as well as his thoughts on his career in the fight game.

“I’ve known for a while. I just haven’t really made it official. I’m not sure why. You never know. But I’ve known for a while that I’m not going to be fighting anymore. Sometimes it’s tough to make it official.”

“I had ups and downs, had some great wins and also had some tough losses, but that’s the name of the game. t’s a volatile game. You can have big up swings and also tough losses. But every fight, I always came to fight and I tried to finish the fights. I’ve never been one of the guys that just tried to squeak out a boring win. I went in there to fight. Sometimes that can bite you in the ass too, if you come in with a good game plan but then take a punch and you get too emotional and you want to fight. But I definitely had that desire inside to put on a fight, and I think that showed in my fights.”

“I’m sure I’ll still be involved in MMA. It will probably be more from a hobby perspective, whereas before, I was doing full-time fighting and full-time coaching. But I still have gyms that I work with and that I help. I coach, I do seminars, and I work a lot with my affiliate gyms and make sure that they’re getting better in their MMA development. So I’ll be involved in MMA, but now I’m really busy with other things.”