Estou pronto para dia 15 de outubro,
@ufc
mande o contrato MUNIZ x CANNONIER . I’m ready! Send me the
contract 🙋♂️🖊📝 @danawhite
@Mickmaynard2
🔥🔥🔥🔥👊🏻— Andre Muniz (@andremunizufc)
August 31, 2022
Top-10 Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight
Andre
Muniz is looking for a fight.
On Wednesday, Sean
Strickland
withdrew his headlining match against Jared
Cannonier (15-6) on
UFC Fight Night 212 due to a finger infection. As a result,
Cannonier was left without an opponent and he was reportedly pulled
from the card altogether. If ranked middleweight Muniz (23-4) has
anything to say about it, the Oct. 15 main event should be back on
with him in the marquee position.
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The Brazilian took to social
media to campaign for the vacant spot not long after the news
broke. He then spoke to Sherdog, where he gave his thoughts about
Cannonier as a prospective opponent and where it would place him in
the title picture.
“I’m ready, I’m training, I’m 97kg [213.8 pounds],” Muniz said
excitedly, “so if the UFC just sends the contract [I would accept].
I believe that [beating the no. 2 middleweight] would [place me]
among the top five, and I would be on the doorstep of the
belt.”
Muniz got his start on the major stage from the Brazilian season of
Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018. There,
he faced Bruno
Assis, and claimed a decision win over his countryman nicknamed
“Brunao.” It was not enough to earn him a spot on the roster, so he
appeared again almost exactly one year later on the third season of
DWCS, and he tapped Taylor
Johnson in 106 seconds to get signed by the Las Vegas-based
league.
Since then, Muniz has looked nothing short of spectacular. His
promotional debut against Antonio
Arroyo went his way on the scorecards, and “Sergipano” then
rattled off three straight armbars over Bartosz
Fabinski, Ronaldo
Souza and Eryk Anders
– of note, the technical submission of Souza marked the first time
that “Jacare” had ever been submitted as a pro. A 2022 outing
against Uriah Hall
resulted in a unanimous nod in his favor to place him among the
top-ranked competitors at 185 pounds. This is not enough for the
32-year-old out of Montes Claros, Brazil, as he holds a lofty
goal.
“I want to be the first champion coming from the Contender Series,”
the athlete from Tata Fight Team said confidently. Thus far, no
competitor from DWCS has claimed a UFC title, with flyweight
Alex
Perez the first to get a crack at a belt, only to come up short
to Deiveson
Figueiredo.