Munoz’ Bruce Lee moment with Anderson Silva
Last night Mark Munoz beat Chris Leben. Now he wants Anderson Silva’s title. However, in the starkest contrast to Chael Sonnen’s…
Last night Mark Munoz beat Chris Leben. Now he wants Anderson Silva’s title.
However, in the starkest contrast to Chael Sonnen’s rain of disrespect, Munoz credits much of his success to a “Bruce Lee moment” while training with his “good friend” Silva.
“I trained with Anderson,” Munoz said at Saturday’s post-event press conference. “He’s a good friend of mine. I came to the UFC because I want to be the best, and unfortunately, he has the belt.
“For me, I would love to be a world champ, and that’s what I train for. That’s why I’m in this organization. This is the best organization in the world, and I want to be a world champ in this organization. All respect goes to him, but at the same time, I want to get that top spot.”
“I was a guy who was coming up the ranks, and I was just teaching [Silva] wrestling as much as I could. I was teaching him and pouring all my knowledge in the sport (of wrestling). I’ve been in the sport for 20 years. I was pouring into him, pouring into him. I had a Bruce Lee moment with him.
“The first time I trained with him, he held pads for me in Muay Thai. Then he took off the pads. He told me to take off the gloves, and in his broken English, he said, ‘Kneel down.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ He kneeled down in the middle of the cage. He told me to kneel down, and I’m like, ‘What are we doing right now?’ He was like, ‘Mark, when you fight, no fight. No fight. Fight angry. No good. You play. OK? Play.’
“But I got what he was talking about because when you go into the fight with negative emotions, you’re going to fight with that emotion instead of fighting your gameplan – instead of fighting intellectually. I kind of got what he was talking about, and when I trained with him, I trained with him a lot. I kind of got his mentality.”
“I’m ready. I feel that I’ve arrived. I’m ready to take down whoever comes my way.”
UFC President Dana White ultimately decide Anderson Silva’s next challenger, and he agreed thst Munoz was in the mix.
“I think [Munoz] has won some fights,” White said. “He’s won some tough fights, and we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.
“You’ve got Munoz. You’ve got Bisping. We’ve got some guys. We’ve got Chael Sonnen, possibly Dan Henderson at 185, so I don’t know. We’ll see how this whole thing plays out. We’ve got some fights coming up here first, including Bisping’s. We’ll see what happens, and we’ll go from there.”
