Originally Posted by
Vaughany
Interesting match-up stylistically and difficult to judge. Pretty obvious that 3 outcomes are possible: Fight goes distance/ Munoz by TKO/KO / Maia by submission. Munoz is yet to face anybody who has elite BJJ like Maia, while Maia hasn't faced anybody with the KO power that Munoz has (apart from Marquardt which ended very quickly!). However, Maia has faced a fighter with high-level wrestling in Sonnen and ended that quickly. Maia's stand-up has developed since that Marquardt fight, he managed to go five rounds with a clowning Anderson of course, but defensively there are still some holes in his game which Munoz could exploit even with his rudimentary striking. Especially with regard to Maia's route to getting take-downs - he isn't the type to do an explosive double leg takedown, he likes to grab a hold and trip his opponent to the floor. To do this he obviously has to get close to the opponent which means he'll have to put himself in danger of getting caught by one of Munoz's bombs as attempts to clinch. I'll happily take Munoz if he's the dog and hedge it with Maia Submission of the Night. Munoz is going to have a size and strength advantage and obviously has high-level wrestling pedigree even if it hasn't translated that well in to MMA yet (at least offensively), however, it will be defensive wrestling that will be needed in this one rather than offensive as he'll be happy to take his chances standing with Maia.