UFC 96 "Jackson vs Jardine" is around the corner, this Saturday March 7th.
One of the nights fight to keep a close eye on is Matt "The Hammer" Hamill vs Mark Munoz.
Munoz a three time NCAA Division III champion out of Rochester Institute of Technology, plans to put Hamil another decorate wrestle to the ground and pound out a victory.
Here is what Munuz had to say to Sherdog.com: “It’s a great matchup for me. Wrestler versus wrestler. But it’s not gonna be a wrestling match. It’s gonna be, I feel like, whomever has adjusted to MMA better. That’s going to win the fight. All the in-between techniques. The transitions between wrestling and other disciplines. It’s going to be an interesting fight. I’d like it to be exciting. I know Matt Hamill’s gonna want to stand. In a lot of fights, he uses his wrestling sporadically. I like to use wrestling to set up other things. I think obviously his strength is his takedowns. But I haven’t seen much ground game from him. I’ve seen a lot of front headlock punches, and once he gets guys tired and worn down, he’s like a juggernaut. He keeps coming forward. He wears them out with those front headlock punches, dirty boxing punches. Uses wrestling to tire the guys out, but I haven’t really seen him doing ground-and-pound when he’s in guard or half-guard…. I haven’t seen much ground (work) from him. Obviously, his standup’s gotten a lot better. His weaknesses are, I believe, in his ground game on his back. Nobody’s ever put him there. So yeah, I’m looking to put him on his back.”
