Now Munoz faces a stern test at UFC on Versus 2 this Sunday night against a UFC veteran in Yushin Okami who’s made ten previous visits to the octagon and emerged with a loss just twice.

Watch two new videos from MMA Heat below in which he talks about his last fight, a bruising encounter with Kendall Grove, and reveals how Anderson Silva has been helping Munoz prepare physically and mentally for a fight with the last man to beat the current middleweight champion.

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Mark Munoz Interview:

Mark Munoz And His Training Partners:

On this week’s show which also featured actor and comedian Bryan Callen, he did however discuss UFC 117’s Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen fight, plus offer his thoughts on a potential Silva Vs GSP match-up.

The conversation then moved on to Fedor Emelianenko and the situation between M-1 Global and the UFC.

Take a listen to highlights of the conversation below, and check out the full show at joerogan.net.

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Today, by way of a stark contrast, we offer you audio of Anderson Silva’s comments. Silva apparently decided to go the exact opposite route from Sonnen and offer little more than one word answers to the questions from the media which seemed to anger some of those present.

It’s yet more puzzling behavior from Silva who was almost universally criticized for a bizarre, lackluster display at UFC 112 against Demian Maia in which he appeared to lose interest in the fight half way through and failed to engage despite boos from the fans in attendance.

That incident got him into trouble with an infuriated Dana White who threatened to kick him out of the company if he ever fought like that again. After yesterday’s conference call, which was like a verbal equivalent of that fight, White may now be wondering whether his warning has fallen on deaf ears.

They say that actions speak louder than words though, so hopefully Silva is just waiting to let his fists do the talking on the 7th of August.

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Transcribing it all would probably take several weeks, but thanks to the good folks at middleEasy.com we don’t have to as they’ve went to the trouble of splicing together all his thoughts in one youtube clip.

Check it out below.

With the UFC possessing many of the world’s best fighters within their ranks it becomes even more challenging, but their are some who have achieved it. In this article we will look at the fighters who are currently defying the odds and notching up an extended winning run on the sports biggest stage.

Note: Article last updated on July 19th, 2010

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Anderson Silva: Eleven Consecutive Wins  (June 2006 – Present Day)

Holding the record for most consecutive wins in the history of the UFC, Anderson Silva’s remarkable winning streak spans almost four years, two divisions, and five successful defenses of his middleweight title.

When you take a closer look at his winning record more impressive statistics emerge. For instance, up until his last fight with Demain Maia, only once in his unbeaten run has he went the distance in a fight – against Thales Leites, who appeared reluctant to engage with the champion. It’s hard to blame Leites when you realize that Silva has KO’d four of his UFC opponents, and only five have made it out of the first round with the deadly striker.

After a disappointing display against Maia at UFC 112 which has resulted in criticism from fans, the media and even Dana White Silva is sure to be looking to make amends in his next outing, and that could be bad news for whoever his next opponent may be.

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Gray Maynard: Seven Consecutive Wins (June 2007 – Present Day)

Since a defeat to Nate Diaz in The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 (which doesn’t count on his official record of 9-0 1nc), Gray Maynard hasn’t lost a fight.

Along the way he’s picked off several notable names in the UFC’s lightweight division including the man who has just overtaken him to take the next shot at BJ Penn’s title, Frankie Edgar (who’s own winning streak stands at just three fights). The reason he has so far been overlooked for a title shot is almost certainly down to his inability to finish fights, with only one of his seven fights, a KO over Joe Veres back in September of ‘07, ending inside the distance.

Maynard isn’t the first fighter to find himself in such a predicament. Jon Fitch went eight fights unbeaten before he was given a shot at the welterweight title. His run then ended to the next fighter on our list – GSP.

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Georges St.Pierre: Seven Consecutive Wins (August 2007 – Present Day)

Widely considered to be one of the top three pound for pound fighters in the world, welterweight champion Georges St.Pierre has had a remarkably successful career in the UFC.

Alongside his current winning streak he also previously recorded another six fight unbeaten run in the octagon. What makes his current streak all the more impressive is the caliber of competition he has faced – Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves and Dan Hardy – a veritable who’s who of the welterweight division.

The major problem for GSP now is finding opponents worthy of stepping in the cage with him. At this stage a long rumored fight with the fighter at the top of this list – Anderson Silva, may be the biggest threat to St.Pierre’s dominant run.

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Cain Velasquez: Six Consecutive Wins (April 2008 – Present Day)

Cain Velasquez had just two fights (both wins) on his record prior to finding himself in the UFC’s heavyweight division, but the highly regarded prospect didn’t let his lack of experience get in his way, and has since notched up six consecutive wins.

An relenting competitor in the octagon, Velasquez has succeeded in ending five of his six fights before the final bell by TKO. He’s also bettered some established fighters in the heavyweight division, including Cheick Kongo and former IFL champion Ben Rothwell, who had over 30 fights more than Velasquez heading into that bout.

His latest and undoubtedly his toughest test to date was Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. In this fight we finally got to see Velasquez earn his first KO victory, taking just over two minutes to stop the Brazilian, who has never been stopped by cleanly knocked out before.

The convincing win sent a message to the rest of the heavyweight division that Velasquez is the real deal, but he will now have to get past current champion Brock Lesnar if he wants to retain his unbeaten record.

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George Sotiropoulos: Six Consecutive Wins (December 2007-Present Day)

Entering into the UFC via The Ultimate Fighter Season 6, Australian George Sotiropoulos has since taken two years to put together his five fight unbeaten run. The reason it’s taken so long is that he spent over a year out injured between April 2008 – August 2009.

Until recently Sotiropoulos had compiled the majority of his run away from the spotlight of the main card, against the likes of George Roop and Jason Dent which led to fans calling for him to receive a more recognized opponent.

Those calls were answered at UFC 110 in Australia when he took on former No.1 lightweight contender Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson. In front of his home fans Sotiropoulos produced his best performance in the octagon to date to secure a decision win and keep his winning streak intact, and has since added Kurt Pellegrino to his list of victims.

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Junior Dos Santos: Five Consecutive Wins (October 2008 – Present Day)

The first in a string of fighter with five consecutive victories in the UFC under their belt, Junior Dos Santos has been making serious waves in the heavyweight division.

Dos Santos hasn’t had it easy since his arrival in the UFC in October of 2008. His first opponent was Fabricio Werdum, the man currently being lined up as Fedor Emelianenko’s next opponent in Strikeforce. Since then other respected fighters, Stefan Struve, Mirko Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel and Gabe Gonzaga have also been handily dispatched – four of them within the first round. Impressive – and he’s still only 25 years old.

Next up for Dos Santos is another tough fight against TUF season 10 winner and MMA veteran Roy Nelson with the winner being lined up for a heavyweight title shot.

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Just below the front-runners there are a number of fighters in recent events who have now went four fights unbeaten in the UFC. See the full list below:

• Brock Lesnar
• Jim Miller
• Evan Dunham
  
• Jon Fitch
• John Howard
• John Hathaway
• Frankie Edgar
• Ryan Bader
  

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Article By RossC (Last updated on July 19th)

Pictures courtesy of sherdog.com

If you enjoyed this article then you might enjoy some of our other recent features such as:

The Top 12 UFC Fighter Salaries In 2009

Where Are They Now? 20 Fighters Cut From The UFC In 2009

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Belfort had originally been set to face Anderson Silva’s at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, but the injury forced him out and Demain Maia took his spot. While he’s been in rehab Chael Sonnen has also leapfrogged Belfort and will face the champion at UFC 117 next month.

Now the Brazilian is back in training in the U.S with his coach Shawn Tompins with a view to stepping back into the octagon later in the year.

“We probably won’t fight ’til October / November, but him coming here this early is only going to make our camp even better,” Tompkins tells the Las Vegas Sun in a new video interview.

Despite the fact it will have been over a year since his last fight, a win over Rich Franklin in a 195lb catchweight fight at UFC 103, it seems that a shot at the title is what they are aiming for.

“I can tell you as a coach I hope we get the winner of Sonnen and Anderson Silva.” says Tompkins.  “Anderson Silva I think would mean a little bit more to us, and the fact that they’ve trained together, their both Brazilian, and ultimately, go and ask the fans who they want to see fight: Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.”

As yet there’s no confirmation that Belfort will be the next title contender though.  In fact just a few weeks ago Belfort was expected to be Michael Bisping’s next opponent at UFC 120 in the UK, but for reasons that haven’t been disclosed the fight fell through.

Either way it will certainly be a welcome sight to have Belfort back fighting again before the year is out.

Watch the full video interview with Belfort and Tompkins below.

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In a new interview for UFC.com however, it becomes apparent that the Brazilian isn’t best pleased with what Sonnen has had to say for himself.

“Chael, as a fighter, is a good politician,” says Silva.  “As far as all the trash he’s talking, when both of us are inside the octagon, he’s going to have an opportunity to make good on all the things he’s being saying.”

Silva is keen to point out that a lot of the trash-talking coming from his opponent doesn’t add up.

“There are idiotic things coming out of his mouth.  Chael’s saying I’ve never fought a wrestler.  In my opinion Dan Henderson is one of the best wrestlers in MMA.  With him being a politician he should really be careful what he’s saying.”

The dominant middleweight champion also throws a veiled threat at Sonnen as he suggests he might have to change career paths after they fight.

“First Chael says he wants to be a fighter, then he says he wants to be a politician. Which one is it? You can only choose one.  I’ve chosen to be a fighter. After the fight, Chael will have a different idea of what choice he wants to make.”

Silva certainly has the credentials to back that up.

After all he permanently re-arranged former champion Rich Franklin’s face and ultimately sent him packing from the 185lb division in their two fights.  He derailed Chris Leben’s five fight winning streak after TUF season 1 in under a minute, sent Forrest Griffin into a period of depression after knocking him out and helped send both Travis Lutter and Thales Leites packing from the UFC.

Sonnen recently announced that he was taking a step back from his political ambitions for the time being, but on this evidence perhaps he shouldn’t have been so hasty.

“It’s not that I want to go fight Georges St. Pierre for his title. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s the reigning champion, the absolute champion, in that weight category. But I just want to test myself and see how I’d do at that weight,” he said at the time.

Recently UFC president Dana White has noted several times that, while he feels the two fighters are too far apart in terms of their size, he would be willing to put on the fight if there was enough demand from fans for it.

According to White earlier this week GSP has said that he would be willing to take the fight if that’s what the promotion wanted, but it seems that Silva has now cooled on the idea.

“I don’t think a fight with GSP will ever happen. It’s not a fight I want to have and I don’t think GSP wants it either,” Silva said during an interview for Rover Radio.

Personally I don’t think it’s the end of the world if they don’t fight. To my mind it’s not as frustrating as the fact that Fedor is fighting the likes of Fabricio Werdum over in Strikeforce when there’s clearly a host of better match-ups in the UFC.

While I don’t believe the size and weight difference between Silva and GSP automatically rules out the idea of them stepping into the octagon together, I do think it hands Silva a distinct advantage. Instead I’d be just as happy if the Brazilian moved up to 205lbs where a host of exciting fights await him.

As well as being a fighter Sonnen is involved in the Real Estate business, and he indicates that this is the reason for his decision.  Read his official statement on the matter below.

“In the best interests of my district, I am resigning from my campaign for the Oregon House of Representatives. A 2006 legal issue has arisen that needs my immediate attention. I am not at liberty to disclose the details, but my name was involved in a real estate case that requires a ruling. If the ruling is adverse, I would be disqualified from running for office until 2011. So, given that possibility, I have chosen to withdraw my name as a candidate in 2010. I will continue to contribute to my community and ensure that we have a capable candidate to run for my district in November.”

While we wouldn’t doubt his version of events, it’s also worth noting that in the past week there’s been a potential political storm brewing over controversial remarks which Sonnen has made on what is believed to be his twitter account recently.

The Huffington Post declared tweets on the site he is alleged to have written in reference to Anderson Silva were borderline racist and inappropriate for someone with political aspirations.

Sonnen denied the twitter account was his, but it was later discovered that he himself had confirmed that it was his earlier in the year, and there was video evidence to prove it.

Whether that was the real reason for his withdrawal or not I’m pleased that the decision has been made as it could have led to some negative media attention for the sport of MMA if it had progressed any further.

Also, in my opinion, with the biggest fight of his career ahead of him on August 7th, it’s perhaps for the best that he focuses all his attention on that instead.

According to UFC president Dana White the time could be fast approaching when a more permanent move could be on the cards.

“He’s got to get through this fight with Chael, and then we’re going to start talking about him going to 205,” White told MMAweekly at the UFC Fan Expo.

Getting past Sonnen is not a given though as Dana is well aware.

He could knock Chael out, but I tell you what, Chael’s going to be in his face going for takedowns. I actually like this fight with Chael Sonnen. The Demian Maia thing, Demian Maia is awesome. I like him. I respect him. He’s a great jiu-jitsu guy. You can’t compare his takedowns to Chael’s,” he says.

Personally I’d love to see Silva at light-heavyweight more often as there’s far more challenging fights for him there at this moment in time.

At the same time I’m still also interested in the prospect of Silva fighting Vitor Belfort which in all honesty I would actually have preferred if that fight had been made instead of the Sonnen one.