Aaron Simpson Ready To Brawl With Friend, Mark Munoz At UFC 123

Middleweights Aaron Simpson and Mark Munoz, two of the most decorated wrestlers competing in the UFC, have agreed to face off at UFC 123 in November at The Palace of Auburn Hills in the Detroit. This will be the UFC’s first return to the Motor City since UFC 9 back in May of 1996.

↵Prior to his recent loss to Yushin Okami back in August, Munoz (8-2) was riding a three fight win streak inside the Octagon. Munoz’s impressive performance over TUF winner Kendall Grove at UFC 112 acted as a launching pad for his profile, and he was immediately thrown in with the creme at the top of the 185lb division. Now, he looks to rebound with a solid win over Aaron Simpson.

↵Simpson, who along with dealing with his loss to Chris Leben in June, has also been plagued with a pretty serious Staph infection. Recovered on all fronts, Simpson will look to put his much improved stand up to good use against Munoz, who was having a noticeably difficult time dealing with the Okami’s striking during his last fight.

↵SB Nation caught up with Simpson who had this to say about his upcoming opponent-

↵↵Mark is a very good friend of mine and one of the nicest guys you could ever know. Now we’re gonna fight ... it’s weird. You can bet it is going to be a brawl.

↵He’s a better person than I am. I have a lot of respect for him. I consider us kind of training partners in a way. We would be around each other at the same wrestling tournaments, we would work out together.

↵↵Although there may be some friendly subplots in this upcoming fight, Simpson made it clear that both he and Munoz understand the business side of fighting in the UFC.

↵↵I didn’t really have much of a choice. I wanted to take a fight and they gave me Mark. He’s kinda the same way and in the same boat, coming off a loss. Neither of us want to take a step down in competition so we both sort of needed this fight.

↵↵This fight should be pretty interesting. We have two premier wrestlers, which more often than not forecasts for an exciting stand up war. Both of the guys need this fight to get back into the mix at 185, so I don’t see this fight being a let down. I foresee an ambulance ride in their future, and they better bring one big enough for both of them.