UFC ‘Jones vs. Matyushenko’ Main Card Preview

Mark Munoz vs. Yushin Okami

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An undefeated yet somehow inconsistent middleweight run comes to a head for Munoz as he takes on his biggest challenge yet in stalwart contender Okami. What really makes this fight interesting is the bizarre misconceptions about how exactly these two match up.

Munoz was an elite collegiate wrestler, but those skills simply haven’t translated to MMA yet. He just barely won a glorified wrestling match with Nick Catone and seems happy to rely on his excess of punching power to win the day. Not the best combination against Okami, who is a proven wrestler in his own right and has the technical striking skills that Munoz desperately needs.

Regardless of whether or not Okami can consistently get Munoz down, he has his number on the feet based on the unsightly striking defense Munoz has shown thus far. In bouts with Kendall Grove and Matt Hamill, Munoz was rocking the defensive skills of a pillow and it showed as he got cracked several times over. Okami is no Anderson Silva, but in his recent match against Lucio Linhares he did show dramatically improved boxing that complemented his vaunted Greco-Roman skills quite nicely.

That sort of natural fluidity is absent from Munoz’s game, and it shows when he often struggles to get anything going from top control despite being a human atom smasher. Whipping power punches at Okami’s head while eating counterpunches and desperately trying to avoid takedowns is a killer game plan if you’re looking to lose. Unfortunately Munoz doesn’t have much in the way of secondary options and has yet to show any sort of strategic foresight.

Contrast that with Okami, who has long been an underrated grappler thanks mostly to his conservative style. Although he doesn’t have any substantial submission wins, Okami has always been a smooth guard passer and his stifling base makes him nearly impossible to budge once he has top control. Munoz prefers to posture up from the top position, which ends with him wasting takedowns more often than not.

To say that Munoz’s success has been fortuitous would be an understatement. That sort of luck isn’t going to hold up forever, though, as the holes in his game are becoming a matter of public record. Okami isn’t going to get out-wrestled, and Munoz will be too busy eating punches to land any of his own. Rinse and repeat for three rounds until Okami gets his hand raised.