UFC 102 Preview: Middleweight Mark Munoz Seeks Win Over Nick Catone

 
UFC 102 will take place on Saturday, August 29th from the Rose Garden arena in Portland, Oregon. The event's major attraction will be a legendary heavyweight tilt between Randy "The Natural" Couture and Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira in what could determine the next title contender. The card will also feature a light heavyweight battle between Keith Jardine and Thiago Silva, and one of the more anticipated middleweight contention bouts in BJJ phenom Demian Maia and a very well-rounded Nate Marquardt.

The event's undercard features a number of divisional match-ups that focus on fighters making their way back into the mix while others are likely making a last stand in order to remain with the promotion. The first preliminary bout of the evening will feature Filipino-American and 2001 NCAA Division I wrestling champion Mark Munoz (5-1) taking on New Jersey-native Nick Catone (7-1) in a middleweight match-up.

Munoz is probably a fighter that fans have only really glanced at within the last year. He was formerly a WEC fighter who was transplanted into the UFC following the WEC's decision to disband the light heavyweight, middleweight, and welterweight divisions. While his time in the WEC was short-lived, he did manage to rack up two solid wins within the promotion, TKO victories over Ricardo Barros and Chuck Grigsby at WEC 34 and WEC 37 respectively. It was evident that the level of competiton in the WEC was lacking, but his potential was something the UFC could not pass up.

Munoz made his splash in the UFC at UFC 96 against equally tough wrestler Matt Hamill. Hamill (6-2) didn't seem to have a plethora of experience by just glancing at his record, but he had fought much tougher competition than Munoz. Hamill had also amassed his record with fights that were all within the UFC. Once the fight started, it was obvious that Munoz's wrestling credentials weren't enough to take down Hamill, and Hamill used his superior stand-up game to pepper Munoz with shots throughout the round. A head kick at the 3:53 mark ended Munoz's night spectacularly.

Following the loss to Hamill, Munoz has dropped to the middleweight division and began making his rounds in the Southern California area to improve his overall skill-set tremendously. He has managed to clean up his diet, drop the weight in order to make a clean, easier cut to 185 pounds, and he's began training at Mike Guymon's gym and Black House's California facility. It should be interesting to see what areas Munoz has improved upon since taking on Hamill.

Nick Catone will try to not be on the receiving end of Munoz's new techniques. The New Jersey-native is making his third appearance in the Octagon, previously going 1-1 with a win over Derek Downey at UFN 17. His last outing at UFN 18 against Tim Credeur didn't go so well as he lost via guillotine choke in the second round. It's no secret that the UFC is pretty quick to cut lower ranked fighters within many of the divisions, so this may be a do-or-die scenario for Catone.

Interestingly enough, Catone is no stranger to the D-I world of wrestling. He was a 2x National qualifier, 2x Conference Champion, and won over 100 matches in his D-I NCAA career with Rider University. While those aren't near the credentials that Munoz has attained, he does have the base in wrestling to give Munoz some problems in the takedown department. He currently trains in boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu as well, obtaining a rank of purple belt in BJJ at BJJ Shore Academy.

This bout isn't exactly a rollover match for Mark Munoz. Many fans are looking at the fact that Munoz is a Filipino-American and the UFC is potentially looking at the Phillipines as a place in which they can make some money. It would be pretty easy to deduce that the UFC is trying to set up Munoz with easier bouts to keep in him the framework of the UFC for that type of expansion. The problem with that concept is that Catone isn't exactly an easy opponent considering his background and heavier hands he's displayed in his Ring of Combat bouts earlier in his career.

Munoz has likely improved drastically from when he took on Matt Hamill, but Hamill didn't have to work terribly hard to defend Munoz's attempts at a takedown in that fight. If Catone can keep the fight standing, he might have a better chance at defeating Munoz. I fully expect Munoz to be a changed fighter this time around though, but don't expect a one-sided thrashing unless Munoz can easily put Catone on his back early.