There are a lot of stupid decisions that UFC has made over the years but the addition of CM Punk as a headliner was one of the worst. This is a guy who has never fought in any MMA sport and comes from a background of "sports entertainment" in WWE as his only line on the resume that would even qualify him for fighting at all. It's like introducing Tom Cruise into the actual military because he did a great job in the Mission Impossible films. Tom would get absolutely worked in actual combat just like CM Punk got absolutely Punk'd in the UFC.
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Everything was working against Punk in UFC other than the fact that the UFC knew that it would be a huge draw and that is why his 2 professional fights took place in his home city of Chicago where he is a bit of a hero. The first fight was particularly embarrassing as he performed exactly like myself and anyone else who is serious about this sport thought he would perform. He is not a fighter and honestly, if he really wanted to be involved in MMA he should have taken the time to work in lower divisions before heading to the big time straight away. However, if he had done that he would have been taken out in the lower ranks as well before he had a chance to make himself, as well as UFC, tons of money.
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In his first fight they pitted Punk against a guy that none of us that regularly watch the sport had ever even heard of. His name is Mickey Gall. Mickey has won only one of his last 4 fights and has an overall record of 7-5. I suppose that defeating Punk in 2016 could have propelled him to the big time, but aside from beating other guys you have never heard of, he was always bound to be a mid-card fighter on Fight Nights and I believe that UFC was and is very aware of this. He hasn't fought in UFC for 2 years. He's got an upcoming fight, surprisingly at a PPV event in June of this year and I would imagine that this is a "do or die" moment for him because UFC doesn't stay interested in mid-card fighters with even or losing records for very long.
Punk was completely outclassed by a guy that isn't even very good. Now there is no shame in being ranked number 121 in the world, which is where Gall currently is, but that is about what he was ranked when they put him up against Punk on that ill-fated day in 2016. CM Punk looked lost in the octagon and despite having a top-tier training team that was likely funded by the UFC, he just looked like a fish out of water and lost very quickly to a very common submission that Punk had no answer to.
You can see right from the outset that Punk came to a MMA fight with boxing in mind. Did he even do any research on Gall to see that he is primarily a submission expert? I don't think that Punk landed a single significant strike in that fight at all. If you watch for just 20 seconds you can see the extreme difference in their strikes and Punk never had a chance.
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Look at these stats. Calling those 6 shots that CM Punk got off of his back "strikes" is being very generous to the WWE star. Mostly he just got mauled and was completely outclassed. I'm sure that the home crowd and UFC brass were hoping for better and were looking for a Brock Lesnar part 2. That is not what they got and they were delusional if they ever seriously thought he had a chance.
Remarkably, Punk was invited to do yet another PPV event a few years later. Punk did better in his second fight but I believe that this was mainly because UFC had hand-picked a guy that was not going to take him down to the ground. Hilariously, Punk actually had worked on his ground game a LOT in those two years but in 9 attempts to get Mike Jackson to the ground, he succeeded only once and did almost nothing while he was down there. In the end Jackson won very clearly in a unanimous decision. Punk has not entertained the idea of getting back into the sport ever since.
We shouldn't be crying for Punk just yet though. He has a net worth of around $20 million and is still one of the most famous faces from WWE in the past 20 years or so despite his incredible falling out with McMahon and the organization as a whole.
CM himself has acknowledged that it was a stupid idea for him to attempt to get into MMA and admits that he was at least partially inspired by Brock Lesnar to give it a go. He says "what was I thinking?" when interviewers inevitably ask him about it. He was too old (37 at the time,) not at all prepared for actual combat, and didn't even take the time to try out the lower ranks before going to the big time. He readily admits that he was definitely out of his element in his brief stint in the UFC.
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Brock Lesnar worked out in MMA because he is a physical specimen the likes of which the world rarely sees. Brock also had a background of being a national champion in REAL wrestling in college defeating everyone in his path somewhat easily. Also, when you weigh around 280 lbs, there aren't very many people that can take you on in fighting at all anyway. Just look at the heavyweight division today and you will see that they guys who are around "The Beast Incarnate"s weight would probably have lost to Brock in his prime as well. The lower weight guys would really struggle to not get taken down by him "leg arms" because if he gets you there, the weight alone is enough to defeat most people.
CM Punk on the other hand, was in a division that is littered with extreme talent in the welterweight division. He never stood a chance.
At least the guy isn't making any excuses though and knows that it was a side-show that was more of a pipe-dream than anything else.
This is one of the reasons that I am glad that Vince McMahon no longer has anything to do with TKO/UFC productions. If he was there, we would see the sport get dragged into even more events like this.