This Wednesday welterweight standout and former WEC champion Carlos Condit (22-4) will make his UFC debut against Martin Kampmann (14-2).

Many have concluded that Condit, a top-ten welterweight, will easily dispatch his Danish opponent. For a debut fight in the UFC Condit could have drawn an easier opponent. 

Martin Kampmann was a top middleweight prospect for the UFC until he tore his ACL. Since the injury Martin is 2-1, and has dropped to welterweight, winning his debut bout against Alexandre Barros. Kampmann's only losses at 185lbs. came against middleweight behemoth Nate Marquardt and Andrei Semenov. The latter loss was due to a cut.  

Martin Kampmann defeated current #1 middleweight contender Thales Leites via unanimous decision. Could Kampmann pull off another victory against a top-ten welterweight? 

Kampmann posses a well balanced repertoire of skills; his striking is solid, his submission game is sound and he posses the ability to change levels and skill sets when presented with adversity. His bout against Drew McFedries is one of the best examples of true mixed martial arts. In their fight McFedries was getting the better of the stand up, while Kampmann was landing clean punches he couldn't match the power of the stronger McFedries. Kampmann realized this and took the fight to the ground with a simple sweep. From their he set up an arm triangle by transition from side control to mount and won a bout he was losing.

[Note: I often to point to this bout as an example of what it really takes to compete at a high level in MMA]

Kampmann's transition to welterweight was a drastic change. For the first time Kampmann was competing at an equal playing field with his opponents. No longer the small crafty middleweight Kampmann now faces a fighter where he will have the size advantage. While Condit is the taller fighter, at 6'3" to Kampmann's 6'0", Martin will have more girth. In Condit's last title fight for the WEC, he defeated Hiromitsu Miura, but that bout was not a cakewalk. In fact Miura used his Judo throws to great effect. However in hindsight,  Miura's reluctance to employ ground-and-pound, for fear of submissions, may have lost him the fight. 

Condit is also making the transition from big fish in a small pond, to a fish among sharks in an ocean. The UFC welterweight division is easily the deepest division in the entire sport, just consider the fact that Condit is now paired against someone who once was a top middleweight prospect.

Condit does posses top level Jiu-Jistu. Over half of his victories come via decision. Yet three of Condit's, four loses also come from submission, so perhaps Kampmann could find success on the ground. Condit does not posses tremendous striking power or size for a welterweight.

Yet despite the small pond that Condit comes from, he is ranked in the top ten of the division. Part of Condit's rise up the welterweight rankings came from his eight fight win streak, including five straight victories in the WEC welterweight division, a division tailored made for Condit. Perhaps Condit is an overvalued commodity, after all the odds makers have placed Carlos as the underdog at +105 and Kampmann as the favorite at -135.