Fil-Am Muñoz succumbs to Weidman

MANILA, Philippines - Mark Muñoz absorbed a second round TKO defeat at the hands of Chris Weidman at UFC on FUEL TV at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California yesterday, dashing the Fil-Am fighter’s hopes for a crack at the middleweight crown.

Back after a six-month layoff following an elbow injury, the Filipino Wrecking Machine took a punishing elbow that slowed him down and absorbed a rain of haymakers before referee Josh Rosenthal stopped the fight at 1.37 of the second round.

The loss, Muñoz’s third against 12 wins, thus spoiled his bid of challenging Anderson “The Spider” Silva, who recently defeated top challenger Chael Sonnen at UFC 148.

Instead, it could be Weidman, who stretched his win streak to nine, who could be next in line for Silva, currently the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the mixed martial arts.

“I want Anderson Silva,” said Weidman. “Give me a full training camp and I’d love a shot at the man.”

It was a sorry setback by the 34-year-old Muñoz, who beat Chris Leben at UFC 138 late last year to emerge as one of the fast-rising middleweight challengers.

He, however, vowed to rebound from his recent loss.

“I’ll be back, I’ll back,” said Muñoz.

UFC president Dana White, however, said the stoppage was a little bit premature.

“Oh and by the way, horrible late stoppage by the ref. Mark took more shots than he should have. I can’t stand when refs blow it!!!,” said White on Twitter account @danawhite.

The Muñoz-Weidman bout, as well all UFC-sanctioned events, was shown on ABS-CBN’s sports cable channel BALLS on SkyCable Channel 34.