After winning four straight bouts in the Octagon — three via armbar
— Andre
Muniz moved to Rio de Janeiro in early May to complete his camp
ahead of his UFC 276
matchup with Uriah Hall on
July 2 in Las Vegas.
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According to his head coach, Phillip Lima, Muniz is working really
hard for the upcoming challenge.
He is the dream fighter of any trainer,” Lima told Sherdog.com.
“Always the first to arrive and last to leave. We have had many UFC
fighters come from Tata Fight Team, such as Thiago
Santos and Alex
Oliveira. Rarely have I seen such a dedicated fighter. Besides
all the dedication, he is really talented and learns really fast.
He is improving his striking game a lot lately. That’s why I truly
believe this guy will be a big surprise in that division.”
Lima revealed that when the UFC announced Muniz would face Hall
next, some tried to discourage them from accepting the bout.
“Many people told us this is a very dangerous fight.
Why face Hall now? And we always answer the same. Today Andre is
13th in the (UFC) rankings. If he receives the opportunity to face
the ninth-ranked fighter, it’s because he impressed the division
with a sequence of three first-round armbar submissions against
really tough oponents like Bartosz
Fabinski, Ronaldo
Souza and Eryk
Anders,” Lima said. “To tell you the truth, ‘Jacare’ was
especially dfficult for Muniz, because he is an idol of his. And he
did what he did.”
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Lima analyzed why Muniz’s armbar is so dangerous.
“Normally what makes you tap via armbar is the joint pain,” he
said. “The main point with Muniz’s technique is that the angle
at which he attacks the arm doesn’t get the opponent in the
joint but in the middle of the humerus bone and the
opponent may not feel any pain, which is just like Jacare
said after their fight explaining why he didnt tap.”
According to Lima, Muniz became much more cautious with his
training partners after the “Jacare” fight.
“He is such a nice and conscious guy that most of the time,
when he gets opponents for sparring at the academy, he
normally releases (the hold) because he knows that when he
sets the pressure, raising up his hip, there is a possibility to
fracture the bone once the opponent is adrenalized and may not feel
the pain, just like (Souza) did,” Lima said.
Lima also revealed that having a solid heavyweight presence in the
gym has been beneficial for Muniz.
“We have around eight or nine heavyweights here and that’s really
good for him,” Lima said. “So when he fights middleweights they
won’t seem as strong.”
Among the heavyweight partners training daily with “Sergipano”
is Hugo Cunha,
who is scheduled to face the jiu-jitsu legend Marcus Buchecha in
One Championship.
“We are not afraid to go to the ground with ‘Buchecha.’ Hugo was
national jiu-jitsu champion in the brown and black belt (divisions)
and also trained wrestling with the national team,” Lima said. “I
saw ‘Buchecha’ training striking a couple of times at ATT, and I
have no doubt Hugo is a better striker than him. Since the fight
starts standing up and because he trains every day with Andre
Muniz, I would say Hugo has advantages in that fight.”