Alex Munoz and Carl Deaton III both looked to pick up their first UFC wins when they faced off at UFC Vegas 77.
The lightweight bout was the second fight of the night. Munoz had not competed for two years since his UFC debut against Joe Solecki, so it was interesting to see what improvements he had – or had not – made in that time off.
Munoz came out southpaw while Deaton fought orthodox. Deaton struck first, landing a left hook in the opening seconds. Not long after Munoz ran in and Deaton shot a reactive takedown which was defended. The two had some trouble finding the range, and the open stance matchup did not help. The first big moment was when Munoz rocked an onrushing Deaton with a lead elbow ninety seconds in. Deaton recovered, but a cut had opened up on the bridge of his nose. Munoz stayed patient thereafter and Deaton had trouble finding him. Three minutes into the bout Munoz rocked Deaton with an overhand left. He was hurt but still managed to land a big flying knee that made Munoz back off, letting Deaton recover. Deaton landed a big right hand and another flying knee late in the round but Munoz’s chin held up. The volume was low throughout the round, but whenever either man landed it was highly significant.
The second round saw Munoz land a straight left hand that staggered Deaton once again – it seemed every time Munoz hit Deaton it hurt him – but Deaton recovered again because Munoz was not aggressive enough in pressing his advantage. Deaton landed more singular strikes but Munoz’s chin absorbed the blows much better. That was the story of the fight: volume from Deaton and big moments from Munoz. Neither man threw many combinations. Three minutes into the second round a jab caught Deaton running forward and hurt him again. Munoz followed up more this time, hitting him with a few body kicks before backing off and becoming low-volume again. At some point the strikes of Deaton had opened a cut over the left eye of Munoz and blood trickled down into the socket. Not much happened in the rest of the round except for a half-hearted takedown attempt by Munoz, which failed.
Munoz hurt Deaton again at the start of round three with a left hand. This time it was a full knockdown and Munoz pounced on him, trying to finish the fight with rapid ground-and-pound. Deaton remained tough as ever, though, and scrambled over to the cage so he could work on getting Munoz off of him. Munoz stayed heavy on the top pressure though, holding a rear body-lock, and did not allow Deaton to get up. However Deaton’s attempts did force Munoz to stop hitting him for the most part, save for some nice knees to the body. Deaton got to his feet fully, at last, but Munoz got in on a double leg right away and threw him to the floor. However ‘The Anishinaabe Kid’ would not be deterred, and he got back to his feet in the clinch again. He got taken down again but used a front headlock to get up again. They were stuck in this cycle for most of the round. With fifty seconds left Deaton finally broke free from the clinch. He really went for it in the final seconds but Munoz’s footwork made it hard for Deaton to close the distance effectively.
3️⃣ hard fought rounds in the books! 👏 #UFCVegas77 pic.twitter.com/6go3CMabmJ
— UFC (@ufc) July 15, 2023
When the judges scorecards were read there was no doubt as to who had gotten the decision. All three judges gave it Munoz, albeit with slightly different scorecards as one had a 10-8 round while one gave Deaton a singular round. Munoz picked up his first win in the UFC in his third attempt.
Official Result: Alex Munoz def. Carl Deaton III by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
