Mark Munoz to face Yushin Okami at UFC on Versus 2
Mark Munoz (8-1) is going to be taking a hefty step up in competition for his next fight at UFC on Versus August 1st. Since moving down to the middleweight division after a devastating lost to Matt Hamill he’s gone 3-0 and looked better each time. In his last fight against former Ultimate Fighter winner Kendall Grove, Munoz rallied from a rough start to show off his impressive ground and pound to get the TKO victory.
His opponent in Salt Lake City will be veteran and top 10 ranked Yushin Okami (24-5) who is 8-2 in the UFC. The last person to defeat current Middleweight champ Anderson Silva, Okami was one fight away before losing to Chael Sonnen at UFC 104. Okami recently got back in the win column by defeating Lucio Linhares by 2nd round TKO in March at UFN 21.
Each fighter has a wrestling background but the two styles are drastically different. Munoz is a very aggressive wrestler and when he gets you down the only thing he wants to do is pound your head through the canvas. Okami’s style is in your face and smothering to the point that his oppenents get off their game plans. Both will be looking for the takedowns so the key will be whose takedown defense is better.
A very important fight for both fighters but one that has a high probability of being on the boring side for the fans. You’ve heard the cliche of style make fights, well their styles do not make for good fight but that shouldn’t discourage it from happening.
UFC on versus will be headlined by Takanori Gomi vs. Joe Stevenson and also includes notables John Howard vs. Jake Ellenberger, James Irvin vs. Igor Pokrajac, DaMarques Johnson vs. Matt Riddle. A yet confirmed fight between Light Heavyweight Jon Jones vs. Vladimir Matyushenko is also scheduled to bo on the fight card.
