Mark Munoz Talks Anderson Silva, Fedor and his UFC 138 Opponent Chris Leben

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With only one loss at middleweight, “The Philippine Wrecking Machine” Mark Munoz is working to get one step closer to a fight with UFC Middleweight champ Anderson Silva. In order to get there, he will have to get through Chris Leben at UFC 138 from Birmingham, England on November 5th. The fight will be the first five-round non-title fight in UFC.

In this interview with Tom Ngo of 5thRound.com, Munoz discusses Silva, Rampage vs. Jon Jones, PEDs, and Fedor Emelianenko. It’s a good listen, for certain.

On Leben:

“I definitely don’t want to stand in front of him. He gets stronger as you punch him in the face. You definitely want to mix it up. You don’t want to stand in front too long — you want to be able to get the angles. That’s basically it. He’s a tough, tough dude. He’s going to come straight forward and you know that there is going to be bombs flying at you. For me, it’s no secret. I’m going to use my wrestling. I always say that. But, I throw bombs, too. So that’s why, stylistically, this is a great fight because he doesn’t step backward. I don’t step backward. You’re going to see fireworks for sure.”

Hear more from Munoz (via Tom Ngo of 5thRound.com), including his thoughts on Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko as well as his surprising choice for who may be the (second) best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, after the jump.

An Inside Pulse "original", SMS is one of the founding members of Inside Pulse and serves as the Chief Marketing Officer on the Executive Board. Smith is a fan of mixed martial arts and runs two sections of IP as Editor in Chief, RadioExile.com and InsideFights.com. Having covered music festivals around the world as well as conducting interviews with top-class professional wrestlers and musicians, he switched gears from music coverage at Radio Exile to MMA after the first The Ultimate Fighter Finale. He resides with his wife in New York City.