The ground game of @AndreMunizUFC
is NO JOKE
#UFC269 pic.twitter.com/oWFvJ2Cw4h— UFC (@ufc)
December 12, 2021
Andre
Muniz will take a four-fight promotional winning streak into
his matchup with “The Ultimate Fighter 17” finalist Uriah Hall at
UFC Fight Night on April 16.
“Hall is very tough, experienced guy who already had great fights
against top opponents,” Muniz told Sherdog.com. “We already studied
some of his fights against jiu-jitsu opponents and we know how hard
it is to take him down. He has good takedown defense and strong
jabs and spinning kicks.
“So there is no easy way to fight him. I will have to brawl with
him, answering every single strike, pressuring him and when I get
the right timing, take him down.”
Muniz, who lives in Minas Gerais, Brazil, came to Rio de Janeiro on
Jan. 30 to begin his camp at Tata Fight Team.
“I’m already in Rio doing my camp at TFT with my masters Philipe
Lima and Tata Duarte,” Muniz said. “I have great muay Thai and
wrestling coaches here as well as training partners. There is a
muay Thai guy here who has the same body type as Hall, and he is
helping me a lot.”
The fact that Hall has already faced former TFT training partner
Thiago
Santos was also seen as a positive point by the jiu-jitsu black
belt.
“My masters Tata and Philip studied his game a lot back in 2014
when he fought Thiago ‘Marreta,’” Muniz said. “Of course it will
help me to prepare a great strategy to earn my fifth UFC win.”
If he beats Hall, Muniz believes he will need two more victories to
reach a UFC title shot.
“If I win, I believe they must give me the loser of [Jared] Cannonier vs. [Derek] Brunson or [Sean] Strickland vs. [Jack] Hermansson,” he said.
Muniz also weighed in on the clash between Bruno Silva
and Alex
Pereira scheduled for UFC Fight Night 203 on March 12.
“’Blindado’ has heavy hands and ‘Poatan’ is a two-time Glory
champion,” Muniz said. “’Blindado’ already guaranteed that he will
brawl against ‘Poatan,’ who is obviously superior in the standup
game. But of course, it´s MMA. All it takes is one punch. I have no
doubt that this fight will finish in the first or second round. I
believe ‘Poatan’ will win via KO in the second round.”