Muniz bounces back from setback

BY STEVE SMITH SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

As far as Brighton’s Danthony Muniz was concerned, things couldn’t have been better early in the spring.

Muniz, who’s aiming to become a professional mixed-martial arts ghter, was getting set for his rst foray into submission grappling. e goal is to score submission victories as opposed to wrestling, where pins are the name of the game.

Muniz had a spot on a submission grappling card in New York in late April. en the injury bug bit.

“I fractured my shoulder during live training a week before leaving for New York,” Muniz said. “Time o the mat was all it took to recover. It was de nitely a very long month.” at wasn’t all.

“At rst it was a very hard hit on my mental state,” he said. “I was very down and upset. But I knew it was a part of the process. So, I just kept my head on straight and thought about the positive things that could come from it.” e doctors wouldn’t let him train on the mats. But they let him run. His normal output had been ve miles a day. He’s doubled that since the injury. He’s also found some new training partners.

“I have been mainly training with ug Rose Namajunas (a member of the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization and former two-time UFC women’s strawweight champion), Pat HD Barry (a former American mixed martial artist and kickboxer).” Others in the training group are Tatsuo Taira (a Japanese mixed-martial artist), Alonzo Menied (an American mixed-martial artist) and Ralek Gracie (a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappler and mixed martialarts ghter).”

All the work is leading toward an appearance with CJCC, a professional grappling association, in early September in Aurora He and his brother, Dom (also a BJJ ghter), started a clothing and landscaping company, Lifestyle.