Martin Kampann issues warning to young fighters about sparring

UFC veteran Martin ‘The Hitman’ Kampmann spent 10 years fighting professionally, ending his career earlier this year after a 3-year hiatus following his 4th round TKO loss to Carlos Condit, resulting in ‘The Hitman’ being on a 2-fight losing streak.

With 27 professional MMA fights, in addition to numerous amateur Muay Thai & Boxing matches, Kampman has spent quite a lot of time in the gym perfecting his craft.

With that being said, when asked to give one piece of advice to younger fighters, Kampmann revealed to MMAJunkie:

“I think if I could give any advice to younger fighters, probably limit your hard sparring,” Kampmann said during an appearance on MMAjunkie radio. “I stopped because I didn’t want to get any more concussions because that will mess with your head a little bit. I had a couple of fights where I wasn’t giving myself enough time to heal up before I took the next fight. I think that messed me up, for sure.”

Unfortunately, Kampmann is still experiencing the effects of a lengthy combat sports career, despite the fact that the 34 year-old hasn’t fought, or been through a training camp, in three years.

“I feel healthy as long as I get my sleep,” Kampmann said. “I’ve been down to the gym, but if I do five rounds of sparring, I’ll get a headache. That’s why I don’t go spar. … When you start having headaches from little things, that’s a good sign you’ve been pushing it.”

Similarly, former top ranked lightweight TJ Grant has been one of the most recent and notable cases where a fighter has experienced well-documented adverse affects from a concussion.

In the midst of a 5-fight win streak, following his UFC 160 TKO win over Gray Maynard, Grant suffered a concussion in training, dealing with side effects for two years before reporting in 2015 that he was finally symptom-free.