UFC's Munoz recalls a younger CC Sabathia

TAMPA, Fla. - More than most, Mark Munoz remembers a young CC Sabathia.

Munoz, a rising star in the mixed martial arts world and now known as the "The Philippine Wrecking Machine," grew up in Vallejo, Calif., where he attended junior high and then high school with Sabathia.

Though the two didn't hang outside of school - Munoz is two years older - in athletic circles their paths often crossed, whether in gym class and/or pickup football, basketball and baseball games.

"He was a triple threat," Munoz said by phone Wednesday from Louisville where on Thursday he'll fight C.B. Dollaway in a UFC middleweight bout.

Munoz laughed recalling the choosing of sides in pickup games.

"He was never the last one picked," he said. "And there were a lot of other good athletes there [at Vallejo High School]."

Among the headlines of the first day of camp was Sabathia disclosing that he lost 25 pounds. He spoke easily, and with humor, about his weight loss and diet, saying, "I've always been a big guy."

Munoz remembered that being the case, recalling Sabathia as being in the neighborhood of 5-foot-9 and 210 pounds in junior high and 6-0 and around 230 in high school.

"I just remember he was a big, strong, tall, athletic kid," Munoz said. "In PE class, just backing people down in the paint. Like Shaquille O'Neal."

Sabathia was an all-conference tight end in football and also lettered in basketball. As perhaps the preeminent hoops junkie in the Yankees' clubhouse, it doesn't take much to get Sabathia, immensely proud of his days on the hardwood, to talk basketball.

"You can't make Vallejo's basketball team without some skills," Munoz said. "I remember him just dropping Js from the outside on people."

Could Sabathia be a standout in Munoz's sport?

"If he trained, he could for sure," Munoz said. "Because of his size and his strength, with the right training, he definitely could."