The Sports Informant

By Patrick Ibarra
Editor

The Sacramento area will be well-represented this weekend. While many eagerly await the arrival of the World Extreme Cagefighting’s first pay-per-view event at Arco Arena on April 24, fans won’t have to wait more than a day to see a local fighter take center stage on a Mixed Martial Arts pay-per-view event.

Mark Munoz, a Sacramento-area native who now trains in Southern California, traveled all the way to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for this weekend’s “UFC 112: Invincible” event, in which he’ll fight veteran Kendall Grove for a chance to improve to 8-1 as a professional Mixed Martial Artist.

Mark Munoz is ready for his UFC fight Saturday. (Photo courtesy the UFC)

Their fight is scheduled on the main card, guaranteed to be seen by millions of pay-per-view subscribers, many who have seen Munoz fight already in UFC broadcasts. Munoz last fought at “UFC 108: Evans vs. Silva” on Jan. 2, submitting Ryan Jensen on strikes in the first round.

Grove’s a different opponent than Munoz has seen, though. He’s tall and lanky at 6-feet-6-inches tall (Munoz is 6-feet tall), athletic and maneuvers well. He’s a solid veteran at 13-6, with several fights within the UFC’s Octagon.

Still, Munoz is on a tear that even Grove may not be able to stop. The 32-year-old former collegiate wrestler has won four of his five fights since joining the Zuffa organization in June of 2008, going 2-0 in the WEC and 2-1 in the UFC, winning his last two fights. His rise in the 185-pound division has been somewhat meteoric, as he’s only a few wins from being considered a contender.

While he’ll have his work cut out for him with the kickboxer on Saturday, Munoz is confident his strategy can get him a win.

“It’s both speed and timing. I’ve been going with a lot of boxers and kickboxers,” Munoz told the UFC. “He’s really tall so he’s going to want to keep me away. He’s going to want to keep me away as much as possible with straight kicks, by establishing his jab and working his angles. If I was a tall fighter, I’d fight tall too.

“I’ve been learning to approach the game with a Mike Tyson-type of pressure, slipping and parrying and catching kicks and looking for takedowns.”

A Tyson-like knockout would be quite the resume builder for Munoz, who is looking at a long career in the sport after recently opening his own gym Reign Training Center in Lake Forrest, Calif. But none would be surprised if the former Oklahoma State University wrestler did what he does best.

A good takedown and some ground and pound gave Munoz much success already. After all, it would be hard for Grove to kick Munoz in the head while he’s lying on his back.