Mark Muñoz Leads SportsLife MMA

In September, SportsLife MMA (mixed martial arts) officially launched under Executive Director Mark Muñoz. According to SportsLife Leadership President Dan Britton, adding MMA to the sport-specific lineup makes perfect sense despite it not being in the short-term plan.

“MMA wasn’t on our vision board.” – Dan Britton

“MMA wasn’t on our vision board,” Britton said. “We have other sports we’ve been praying about and searching for leaders. But sometimes something like this happens out of nowhere; God provided another sport and another leader that we weren’t even expecting. We love God-surprises.”

Muñoz brings seven years as a mixed martial arts fighter, including six with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and one with World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC). Before that, he was a two-time All-American and 2001 NCAA Champion at Oklahoma State. He has coached college and high school wrestling for more than 20 years and ran Reign Training Center, an MMA gym in Lake Forest, California. After Cal Baptist University ended its program, where Muñoz was the head coach, it became clear to both him and the SportsLife team that the timing was right.

“Sometimes you need to have some closed doors before you can have open doors,” Britton said. “When God closed the door for Mark as a wrestling coach, that opened the door for him to step into MMA ministry. Like God called Abram in Genesis 12, God is calling us to take that step of faith and then He’ll show us the details.”

As Executive Director, Muñoz will seek out Christ-centered, discipleship-driven leaders who want to do ministry in the sport, then he will train and resource them.

“There’s a lot of ministry opportunity within the MMA world,” Muñoz said. “So many competitors are posting videos of themselves professing Christ after their UFC fights. SportsLife can step into that space and equip them to become spiritual leaders.”

The son of Filipino immigrants, Muñoz started his long and winding journey to MMA ministry at age 13, when his sister invited him to a volleyball tournament at a Christian facility. During a short sermon between matches, he was asked to ponder his eternal destination. Not confident he would make it into Heaven, he confessed Jesus as Savior and Lord, and he jumped head first into youth group, church choir, and Bible studies he would later lead at his high school.

The year before when Muñoz was 12, a pair of Air Jordans tennis shoes led to him being bullied to the point of a brutal attack that left him “walking home bloody, battered, bruised, and ashamed, and fearful about it happening again.” Friends invited Muñoz to take up wrestling, in part to toughen up and learn self-defense.

Through wrestling, Muñoz connected with ministries like FCA and Campus Crusade for Christ, which have now paved the way for him to pioneer a new SportsLife ministry.

“All the events in my life have led to this point. I never thought that punching and kicking would lead me into full-time ministry. But God is sovereign. I love Jesus and I love MMA, and the two are finally coming together.” – Mark Muñoz

Chief Sport Officer Carl Perry sees a natural synergy between MMA, jiu-jitsu, and wrestling. He and Muñoz, long-time friends, have traveled together domestically and globally to run camps and clinics.

“Mark is specifically called to this ministry,” Perry said. “More important than seven years as a ranked fighter in the UFC, he has a solid heart to advance the Gospel through MMA. This partnership is the culmination of a God-given dream many years in the making.”

The biggest opportunity will be inside training complexes and gyms, starting where Muñoz already has relationships. MMA hot spots like Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City will be among his first visits.

“I’m going to get in there and spar with them, punch them in the face, and tell them about Jesus at the same time,” Muñoz said. “It’s going to be awesome.”

“If my sister didn’t invite me out to volleyball, I wouldn’t have heard the Gospel,” Muñoz said, describing what he calls “the power of invitation.” “If my friends didn’t invite me out to wrestling, I wouldn’t have been a wrestler. It’s powerful to invite somebody into a Bible study or into the gym so they can be around believers.”

“I believe that God loves fighters and I believe that He raises up warriors,” Muñoz said. “There’s an essence of faith that has to be involved in the sport of MMA. You’ve got to have faith in your training partners. You’ve got to have faith in your own ability. But faith in Jesus is the most important thing.