Muñoz bats for wrestling’s return to Olympics

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am Mark Muñoz hopes to gain a title crack in the middleweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and help wrestling back to the Olympics.

Muñoz, a legitimate contender for the UFC middleweight crown currently being held by mixed martial arts’ best pound-for-pound fighter Anderson “The Spider” Silva of Brazil, is campaigning to get wrestling, his favorite sport, back into the Olympic calendar.

“Got to, wrestling is a big reason why I am who I am,” said Muñoz, a former All-American wrestler, on his Twitter account @mark_Muñoz.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the sport from the 2020 Games, drawing global backlash and prompting an unlikely advocacy partnership among wrestling governing bodies in Russia, Iran and the United States including UFC fighters headed by Muñoz.

Because of the campaign spearheaded by the likes of Muñoz, FILA, the sport’s world governing body, instituted some changes aimed at making the martial art more spectator-friendly. IOC has put it in a shortlist for possible re-inclusion in the 2020 calendar.

Wrestling though will have to compete with other sports like squash, baseball and softball.

For now, Muñoz is busy preparing for his next fight against Tim Boetsch in UFC 162 on July 7 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada where he hopes to notch a win that will put him in line for a title crack.

Interestingly, Silva headlines UFC 162 against Chris Weidman, who dealt Muñoz his last loss more than a year back.