Mark Munoz and Chael Sonnen are scheduled for the main card of UFC On Fox 2, which is to be held at Chicago’s United Center on January 28. The winner of this bout gets to take on UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva for the title.
Munoz spoke in a recent interview about how he plans to ruin Sonnen’s chance for a rematch with Silva.
“They don’t need to have security around him (Sonnen) because he ain’t going to Brazil,” Munoz recently stated. “I kind of feel disrespected a little bit, but you know what? It is what it is, and it ain’t going to happen. People are going to say what they say,” Munoz said. “I can’t control their opinions, but I can control the attitude that I have within me. I’m just going to go out there and do what I do and fight Anderson in Rio (de Janeiro).”
While both Munoz and Sonnen have headlined before, neither has faced the kind of crowd the Fox platform offers.
“I think it’s going to be a different vibe because I know there’s going to be many more people watching,” Munoz stated. “But at the same time, it is the same. I’m going to go in there, and I’m going to do what I’ve trained for. And I can’t look at it more than that because if I do, I (will) put too much pressure on myself.”
“Network-television jitters” just may be the new “octagon jitters.”
“Guys freeze inside the octagon,” Munoz said. “I don’t ever want to do that. I’m just going to see Chael across the cage, and we’re going to put on a good show.”
Munoz believes he is prepared for the spotlight.
“I feel like when I was in college every practice was geared toward a national championship,” Munoz said. “At Oklahoma State, if you weren’t a national champion, you weren’t anything. It was a lot of pressure that was on me, and I had to deal with that.”
Munoz explains why he believes fighting Sonnen in MMA will be different than amateur wrestling.
“There’s a lot of different ways to be able to win the fight,” Munoz said. “I know he’s developed his MMA game, and I have too, so you’re definitely going to see a fight that has to be watched because we’re going to be slinging stuff all around like kicks, elbows, knees and everything.”
