Camozzi, Chris

Chris Camozzi was born on November 20, 1986 in the city of Alamida , California . While studying in high school he was engaged in wrestling , played rugby . He continued his career as a rugby player in college, but eventually dropped out of school and returned home, where he practiced Thai boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu . On the advice of his coach, a former professional fighter, began to prepare for performances in MMA ^[1] .

Beginning of a professional career

He made his debut in mixed martial arts on a professional level in July 2006, having beaten his rival by technical knockout in the first round. He fought in small American promotions - from all fights invariably came out victorious.

In 2008, he collaborated with the largest Canadian organization Maximum Fighting Championship , suffered his first defeat here in his professional career - in the third round of the match with Jesse Forbes he fell on the elbow lever and was forced to give up. At the same time, two other matches in the MFC won on points.

In March 2009, in the fight for the middleweight title of King of Champions, he met with Jesse Taylor and lost to him by unanimous decision.

The Ultimate Fighter

With 12 victories and only three defeats on the track record, in 2010 Camozzi took part in the 11th season of The Ultimate Fighter, a popular fighting reality show. At the preliminary stage, in a difficult three-round duel, he defeated Victor O'Donnell by a decision of the judges, however both fighters in this confrontation suffered serious injuries: O'Donnell was diagnosed with several fractures of the orbital bone, while Camozzi went on with a fracture of the jaw. As a result, he was last chosen to be the mentor Tito Ortiz's team.

Damage Camozzi received was incompatible with further participation in the show, and in the third episode of Dana White , the fighter said that he was removed from the TUF due to injury. His place in the team was taken by Seth Bachinski ^[2] .

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Despite the injury during the TUF, Chris Camozzi still got the opportunity to sign a contract with the world's largest fighting organization Ultimate Fighting Championship and performed at the final tournament of the reality show in Las Vegas, where he won points by James Hammortry ^[3] .

In October 2010, he went into the octagon against the Korean newcomer to the organization, Yang Don Yi, and in a fairly equal confrontation defeated him by a separate judicial decision. However, a few months later he was defeated by surrender from Kyle Nook and on this was fired from the UFC ^[4] .

Shark Fights

After leaving the UFC, Camozzi moved to the less prestigious Shark Fights promotion, where in May 2011 he met with Joey Villasenor . Initially, a draw was recorded in their match, but later the New Mexico State Athletic Commission found an error in the card of one of the judges, as a result of which Camozzi was declared the winner by a separate decision of the judges ^[5] .

Return to UFC

Already in September 2011, Chris Camozzi signed a new contract with the UFC, and in October he returned to the octagon - in a duel with the French rookie promotion Francis Carmon, he lost by unanimous decision.

Later he made a series of four victories in a row, having prevailed over such fighters as Dustin Jacoby , Nick Catone , Luis Cane and Nick Ring , but then four losses in a row followed - he was defeated by Ronaldo Souza , Lorenz Larkin , Bruno Santos and Rafael Natal . After these four defeats, Camozzi was again dismissed from the organization ^[6] .

UFC Third Coming

In 2014-2015, speaking at the small Colorado promotion Prize FC, Camozzi won and defended his middleweight title. These victories attracted the attention of the UFC leadership - a fighter on a short notice was asked to replace the injured Yoel Romero in a fight with Ronaldo Souza. Camozzi failed to take revenge from Souza; he surrendered in the first round as a result of a successful elbow lever ^[7] .

Despite the defeat, Camozzi remained in the roster of the UFC fighters and lived up to his expectations - they defeated Tom Watson , Joe Riggs and Vitor Miranda , and in the battle with Riggs he earned a bonus for the best performance of the evening ^[8] .

In August 2016, in a duel with Tales, Leites surrendered in the third round, having fallen into a strangulation at the back ^[9] .

In November 2016, he went into a cage against the Australian judoka Daniel Kelly and at the end of three rounds lost to him by unanimous decision ^[10] .

The last time he fought in the UFC octagon in May 2017, losing by unanimous decision to Trevor Smith ^[11] . A few days later, he announced on Twitter that his contract with the UFC has expired, and now he is a free agent ^[12] .

Glory

After parting with the UFC, Kamocii decided to try his hand at professional kickboxing and spent two fights at the largest kickboxing organization Glory . The first fight was won by TKO, in the second he lost by unanimous decision.

Absolute Championship Berkut

Camozzi decided to continue his career in MMA at the large Russian organization Absolute Championship Berkut , where in June 2018 he planned to fight against the Brazilian Tiago Silva . However, Silva had problems obtaining an Australian visa, and literally two days before the start of the tournament, the fight had to be canceled ^{[13] [14]} .

• Chris Camozzi (eng.) - professional battle statistics on the Sherdog website