Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
More from Martin Kampmann:
Explaining the “death choke” he submitted Jacob Volkmann with a UFC 108: “It has a lot of names. Some people call it the ‘death choke’ or the ‘reverse rear-naked choke’ or whatever. I like the move. It's kind of like a rear-naked choke but it's just from the opposite side. I wasn't planning on going to the ground with [Jacob] Volkmann because that was playing into his strength. I wanted to keep the fight standing, but I knocked him down and I followed it up with some ground-and-pound and he gave me his neck, so I seized the opportunity and I caught him with the submission. I'm not sure what's the right name for it.”
On the cut that took him out of the Saunders fight: “I got a bad cut in sparring and it took a lot of stitches. I had to get stitches inside and closed it up and then I had to get stitches on top of it again -- maybe like 15 inside and 15 outside on top of it. It was a pretty nasty gash. I still wanted to fight the fight. I thought it was a great fight. Saunders had a lot of hype going behind him before that fight. I thought it was a good fight. But the doctors said the risk for the scar to break up if it got impacted would be a little bit too risky. I don't want to go into a fight, get jabbed in the eyebrow and then lose the fight because it opened up. So, I chose to take a bigger break and heal up better. Now it feels really good. I've been sparring hard in the gym, but I've still got a little scar to show for it though.”
On rematching Paul Daley: “There's nothing I can do to change (my losses) but I would love to fight Paul Daley again (Daley TKOed Kampmann in the first round at UFC 103). I think that was a fight I should've won and I think I can beat him. Now he's out of the UFC, so a rematch isn't looking very good. I think it was stopped a little too early. I was definitely hurt and rocked, but I've been knocked down before and I'd like to have the opportunity to come back. I was more disappointed with myself for even putting the referee in that position to make the call. I got caught with some punches and I got hurt. But I'd love to fight him again.”
On fighting teammates from Xtreme Couture: “Mike Pyle is fighting on the same card and he's fighting at 170 (pounds) as well. He's a good friend of mine. There are so many other guys to fight so I don't see why we should fight each other. I don't think there's any reason to fight each other. There's so many other guys to fight. If one guy has the title and the other guy is the No. 1 contender, then they're going to have to make that decision. Maybe for a title two teammates can fight each other, but right now for me there's so many other guys at 170 (pounds).”