With majority of their MMA triumphs gone the short route, Mark “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” Munoz or Demian Maia can notch another finish–at the expense of the other.
The powerful ground-and-pound specialist Munoz (10-2 with five wins by KO and one by submission) is coming fresh from a first round KO victory over C.B Dolloway just last March 3.
On the other side, top-of-the-line Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert Maia (14-2 with eight wins via submissions and two by KO’s), with his last three conquests coming by unanimous decisions, is itching to tap somebody out inside the octagon again.
And he wants to scratch it badly with the decorated wrestler.
“That (winning by submission) is what I want to do for sure and that’s something I’m looking for,” said Maia, whose last submission win was over Chael Sonnen way, way back in February of 2009 (Demian Maia–Itching to Get the Tap Out Again Thomas Gerbasi, June 08, 2011).
So, should Munoz avoid the ground game like an allergen? Same as Anderson “The Spider” Silva who “effectively” showboated and danced way from Maia’s ground game invitation en route to retaining the UFC Middleweight Title?
On the contrary (if we are to give the former NCAA champion the benefit of the doubt), Munoz claims to “welcome the ground game as well…BUT (all caps mine) at the same time I’m going to fight where I want to fight, not where he wants to fight. And if I do get there I’m going to scramble back to where I want to be.” (The Beautiful Mind of Mark Munoz by Frank Curreri, June 09, 2011.)
I sense a contradiction here, and my interpretation of “where I want to be fight” and where Munoz is going to “scramble back to” is none other than the stand-up game.
His game plan apparently is to keep the fight standing and try to one-up his frequent training partner and UFC Middleweight King by knocking out Maia.
This is the same prognosis of Randy Couture who, favoring his Oklahoma State University co-wrestling alumni, sees his “brother” avoiding getting the fight to the ground as much as possible (Affliction’s Randy Couture Predicts UFC 131 Maia Vs Munoz, Youtube, Jun 6, 2011).
Again, will it be slick-and-sick submissions versus devastating ground-and-pound?
Well, looks like it’s shaping to be a jumping-to-guard versus sprawl-and-brawl affair for MMA fans.
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