Critics of Chael Sonnen are going to be licking their chops when they hear what Mark Munoz said about the UFC’s favorite bad guy on “The Fight Fix” with Dennis Green last Week (Nov.18).
Long story short, Munoz said that Sonnen wrestled a dirty match when the two former Division I wrestlers met on the mat over a decade ago.
Interestingly, Munoz accused Sonnen, a fighter criticized for not utilizing jiu-jitsu in the cage, for trying two submissions during the course of the match.
“We end up going at it and I end up beating him pretty handily. But in that, he tried to submit me in a kneebar and then changed it into an ankle lock. No, sorry, a heel hook. Not a legal move in wrestling,” Munoz stated, as of course no submission holds are legal in collegiate wrestling.
“He tried doing that to me and I felt my ankle pop and was like ‘aah’ and I knew that he did it so that he could try to come back. I was actually beating him pretty handily. I got upset during that match and was just ruthless in that fight afterwards,” Munoz said, clarifying that he was still able to hang on for the win.
Funny enough, Sonnen went out to dinner with Munoz and his wife years later, where Mrs. Munoz was not particularly happy to see Uncle Chael.
“Years later we end up having dinner together and my wife is sitting at the table and she gets pretty upset, saying ‘What’s Chael Sonnen doing here? I hate that guy; he tried to hurt my husband,'” Munoz recalled.
Surprisingly, Munoz defended the fellow top UFC middleweight when he explained what he did during that match.
“Out of the blue, she said ‘So, can you tell me why you did that?’ He pretty much explained himself and… he’s a good guy, man. He was like ‘Can you blame me? I was getting beat!’ So I guess…if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying,” Munoz said.
At this point, everyone fully expects UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva out until June of next year, so a title eliminator bout between Sonnen and Munoz makes a lot of sense.
Despite the fight not being official yet, rumors persist that the two top-tier middleweights will square off on UFC on FOX 2, set for January 28th at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Both fighters are coming off impressive performances in their most recent bouts.
Sonnen finished off “The All-American” Brian Stann with an arm triangle in the second round of their UFC 136 meeting, while Munoz stopped Chris Leben via TKO after “The Crippler” was unable to continue due to a nasty cut he suffered in the second round of their UFC 138 affair.
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