I know it won’t provide comfort to many to say that a classic grappling affair between a wrestling and a BJJ ace could be the best thing UFC 131 has to offer this coming Saturday but I’ll go ahead and do so anyways. Sure Carwin vs. Dos Santos is now officially a #1 contender matchup but even that won’t absorb the sting left by Brock’s departure from the main event. What I find so enticing about Mark Munoz vs. Demian Maia is the fact that it is on a card surrounded by a plethora of -500’s and +325 betting lines while being a virtual pick em itself. It also has the potential to greatly affect the UFC’s always cloudy middleweight division going forward. But the biggest bonus of all is that assuming you aren’t one of those dudes who require an overtly violent standup war this really should be the most thrilling and tantalizing contests of the night. If standup violence is the name of your game however then clearly Mark Munoz is your fighter here. His recent flash knockout of CB Dolloway proved that he can end it all in an instant but to do so here he’ll have to penetrate the ever tricky Maia. Both guys specialize in ground domination, Maia with his submission prowess and Munoz with some of the most fearsome ground and pound in the game, which means that they might be forced into a striking battle born out of a mutual fear of one another. I like Maia here mainly because I think he’ll be able to work hard enough to keep Munoz’s wrestling and fists neutralized most likely by pinning him to the mat and racking up points not unlike what Clay Guida did this past weekend. Maia has looked outstanding in his two post-title shot appearances but Munoz is far better than both Mario Miranda and Kendall Grove, and this fight, unlike those, should actually be competitive.
Of course if my prediction comes to fruition it will usher more murkiness into the middleweight division. Maia rushed headlong into Jon Fitch territory last April when he put up a useless fight against an arrogant Anderson Silva in a title bout. It was boring and hard to watch and quite frankly Maia’s fault for being unable to bring the heat to Silva. That means nobody, Dana White most of all, will want to see that rematch anytime soon. So where does a win leave Maia? An ultra high level gatekeeper? It’s hard to see him rising back into a title shot anytime soon, especially in this division and especially as long as Silva remains the champ as his style is such a turnoff to the casual fan. That said he remains one of the top 10 middleweights in the world. The UFC will certainly be pulling for Munoz as a win for him would mean a fresh face for them to push towards the top. A fresh face who comes with a built in demographic and an ability (though not a superb one) to knock somebody cold. He has only two losses on his record and they came to former and future UFC PPV main eventers (Matt Hamill and Yushin Okami), but to justify the bump up the ladder he will have to bump off one of the best. I don’t think he’s going to do it but watching him try will probably be the most fun I have all night.
