For a minute there I was worried that the judges would make the wrong decision and one of them did. Cecil Peoples actually awarded the fight to Mark Munoz on a score of 29-28. One takedown in a round is apparently enough to give a guy a round. Not acceptable. We shouldn't be surprised though, considering the source. Munoz came in with a very interesting gameplan. All night he was just lunging in for a single leg. When Okami would sprawl and it was clear the takedown wasn't there, Munoz would just hold on. Large portions of the fight took place in this position. It had to wear Munoz down.
The first round didn't see much action. Okami controlled the pace and used great footwork to confuse Munoz. Mark did manage to get one takedown, which must be what Peoples used to give him the round. The second round saw Munoz continue to reach for that single but he did manage to rock Okami and was very aggressive on the feet. No question that he won round 2.
Going into round 3 Okami knew that he had to put together some offense and he came out with a serious sense of urgency. He controlled everything in the final round. Sprawled like crazy to stop every takedown attempt from Munoz, who was still reaching for that leg, and landed a few more shots to put the icing on the cake of a split decision win. I don't know if this is the kind of performance that usually earns a guy a title shot. He'll likely have to win another fight or two to get there but he's on his way after this win.