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Leo Muniz spends about a quarter of his average day on the road. That’ll happen when one lives in the Pennsylvania’s Poconos, works in Manhattan and trains mixed martial arts in New Jersey.
But that can change for Muniz, born and raised in The Bronx, with just three victories on Sunday (10 p.m. ET on Paramount+) in Miami, as he aims to win Copa Combate, the annual one-night, eight-man tournament from Combate Global that features representatives from eight different countries. The evening’s victorious bantamweight will earn a $100,000 grand prize.
“It would be life changing,” Muniz recently told The Post via Zoom. “I’m not saying it’s something that would make me rich, but it’s something I can use to move my family — move us, once again — to Jersey, where we would have more time [together] on our side, rather than going on the road. And that’s the key thing for me: time. That’s something that I don’t get back.”
Seeing as Muniz (6-1, one finish) estimates he’s earned approximately $12,000 combined from his seven-fight pro career, it’s easy to see how much of a boost a six-figure payday would be. Muniz commutes clear across New Jersey for his day job as a rope access technician, rappelling down buildings to perform work sometimes done with scaffolding or cranes, all while maintaining a pro fighting career that’s more than a decade from its start.
Originally taking up the sport in 2010 and training at a small gym in The Bronx, Muniz made his amateur debut In October 2011, according to MMA record keeper Tapology. By 2013, he’d successfully turned pro on the regional scene and built a 4-0 mark before suffering his first career loss in May 2015.
That was his last fight until this past May.
“Life happened,” Muniz begins to explain regarding the six-year gap in competition. “I had two kids. I was broke, [had] no money. I needed to get my life together. … That was the main thing that I needed to take care of because if they’re not OK, I can’t be OK.”
Beyond the need for money — which regional-level MMA couldn’t provide enough of on its own — his plans to return were derailed by a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee one week before a scheduled 2017 bout.
The injury again wrought financial trouble for the Muniz family. It impacted his work at the time as a roofer, further delaying any plans to come back training for cage fights.
By late last year, Muniz moved his family “technically, out of the ‘hood” on Arthur Avenue by Fordham Road to Tobyhanna, Pa., necessitating a workday full of running around three states. He insists it’s all for his wife Kayla and four children, including a baby boy born last month.
“Who in their right mind would drive over 6 ½ hours daily, get up at 4 in the morning, go to work, come back home, back on the road for another hour [and] 15 [minutes], hour [and] 20 minutes, train at night, and then go back home and sleep for three-to-four hours max and then do it all over again?” Muniz asks rhetorically. “My main driving factor is [my family]. I want to do it for them. I want to give them a better life. And more importantly, it’s chasing that freedom to be with them more.”
A few months after the move, Muniz found his way to Gracie New Jersey Academy in Clinton Twp. The initial intent wasn’t necessarily to resume his pro career, but, he says, “being around other fighters, you kind of get that itch.” Hearing others at the gym, including UFC welterweight Mickey Gall, discussing their upcoming fights did the trick by February.
After what he said was difficulty with the Pennsylvania athletic commission licensing him after a six-year layoff, Muniz reached out to Combate Global senior vice president of operations and communications Mike Afromowitz, who Muniz said had contacted him during his MMA hiatus. By May, he had successfully returned with a one-round decision victory over Hector Fajardo with the promotion, a bout meant to determine an alternate for that night’s bantamweight tournament. The two ran it back in August over three rounds, with Muniz again coming out on top.
“It was decent scrap,” Muniz says of the first fight. “People wanted to watch it again. So we took the next fight to do it again because, this time, it would be a full fight. I’d be a three-rounder. And we came out on top. We came out with the unanimous decision again, and it was just a good scrap with him.”
Experiencing a one-round bout could help Muniz on Sunday. Commissions limit the total cage time a fighter can participate in to 25 minutes in one night, so Copa Combate stages one-round bouts in the quarterfinals and semifinals before a three-round tournament final.
Muniz, who also trains with New Jersey gyms Tiger Schulmann’s Martial Arts in Elmwood Park and Sussex County MMA & Fitness in Sparta, believes he’ll thrive in the unorthodox shorter bouts before the final.
“It’s a different process because there is not much of a feeling-out process,” Muniz says of the one-round format. “We gotta come in hard and come in strong. If you’re a slow starter, it’s probably not the best thing for you.
“But, with my style, it fits me well because I’m not a slow starter. I come out guns blazing from the minute the bell rings.”
The path to the six-figure payday begins for Muniz against Pierre Daguzan of France. Spain’s Kevin Cordero and South Africa’s Frans Mlambo (representing Ireland, where he fights out of) are among the most accomplished in the eight-man bracket.
Munuz notes that a tournament such as this one makes preparing for one opponent or one style difficult.
“I gotta focus on what I gotta do and not think so much about what he’s doing,” Muniz said. “He’s gotta worry about what I’m doing. That’s the mindset I’m coming in with.”
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