LOS ANGELES—THE Philippine Wrecking Machine Fil-Am Mark Muñoz will make his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut this Saturday, March 7 at UFC 96 in Columbus, Ohio.
The undefeated Mixed Martial Artists fighter Muñoz (5-0) will face off against Matt Hamill (7-2), a former Ultimate Fighter season three contestant.
The UFC 96 pits two former All American collegiate wrestlers against each other.
Muñoz was a former All-American and National Champion at Oklahoma State University. Hamill won three NCAA Division III wrestling championships while attending Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. He also won medals at the 2001 Summer Deaflympics.
“It’s going to be a real good barometer for me,” Munoz told Yahoo.com. “Matt Hamill is an established guy and I haven’t done the things he’s done. But I’ve trained with real good guys and, believe me when I tell you, I’ve put every last little bit I have of myself into my training.
“This is such a significant fight for me. Just to get to the UFC is huge, but to be fighting someone of Matt’s caliber makes it that much more significant.”
Hamill, known as a prominent deaf athlete, most recently defeated Andy Reese by technical knockout. Hamill said that Munoz would be a tough opponent.
“He is an outstanding wrestler and from what I’ve seen, a very exciting fighter,” said Hamill to UFC.com. “He poses a great challenge for me and I’m looking forward to it.”
The 30-year-old Muñoz made the leap to the UFC after the World Extreme Cagefighting organization (WEC), the UFC’s sister organization where Munoz previously fought, closed its light heavyweight and middleweight division.
During his time at the WEC, Muñoz went 2-0 with first round knockout wins over Chuck Grigsby and Ricardo Barros. (www.asianjournal.com)
(Published in LA Midweek March 4, 2009, p.A1)
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