(And then another heh heh heh he-heh heh heh. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.)
Fresh off of a convincing victory over Tim Boetsch at UFC 162, Mark Munoz already has his next fight lined up.
According to MMAJUnkie.com, Mark Munoz and Michael Bisping have both verbally agreed to fight each other on October 26th in Manchester, England. The bout will serve as the main event of an upcoming UFC on Fox Sports 1 card, although no other fights have been announced for the card.
The bout makes for a compelling match-up – not only because both guys are top middleweights coming off of victories, but also because they’ve spent the past two years calling each other out. Munoz kicked things off by rallying for a fight against Bisping after reconsidering his adorably misguided call-out of Anderson Silva at UFC 138. Bisping was suspiciously quiet about it – especially for a guy who hates this sort of thing – until he spoke with FightersOnly one year later, after Munoz lost to Chris Weidman:
Well, [Weidman is] on a roll but I don’t think a win over a fat Mark Munoz makes you a contender. Especially when Munoz has bounced into the Octagon like he’s at a Take That concert and with a haircut that looks like Belcher’s tattooist has switched careers. Did that distract him? It distracted me. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. What was it supposed to be, do you know?
Considering that Munoz would go on to battle obesity and depression, Bisping’s insults now seem particularly cold. But for real, Mark, that hair do deserved it’s own Usher Raymond condescending/inspirational post-fight lecture.
In any case, Munoz will certainly be the guy coming into this bout with more hype considering his manhandling of Tim Boetsch compared to Bisping’s technical decision win over Alan Belcher last April. Bisping often does his best when he’s written off, however.
Who do you think will walk away with a win, here, taters? Will Munoz’ power and wrestling take the day or will Bisping’s patient, tactical and well-rounded style prevail? In either case, the fight is a great opportunity for both men to take a big step up the middleweight ladder.