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Fightweets: Will CM Punk have trouble getting licensed?
A new UFC welterweight champion was crowned last weekend. The first UFC strawweight champ was crowned Friday night. A murderer’s row of heavyweights is lined up for UFC on FOX 13 Saturday night.
And still I got more questions on CM Punk than anything else. So let’s jump right into things.
All things CM Punk
@Steven1CR my question: Are you getting enough cm punk related questions?
Yeah, and I don’t mind. I knew the UFC had scored a PR win the morning after UFC 181. By mid-morning, my phone and my Facebook messenger had blown up with people asking about Punk (An aside: Until or unless my editor tells me otherwise, I’m going with Phil Brooks as “CM Punk.” If you were okay with “Mirko Cro Cop,” “Kimbo Slice,” “Renan Barao,” etc., then it’s a little weird to suddenly get upset about using stage names). Those asking about Punk were by and large either a. former hardcore fans who had slacked off over the past couple years and now only tune in for the few events which cut through the clutter, or b. casual fans who had fallen off entirely.
These people were basically just fascinated by the deal. What they weren’t doing was gnashing their teeth over a pro wrestler invading a real sport, or whether this will kill the credibility of grown men stripping half naked in front of thousands of people and kicking the bejeezus out of one another in a cage.
Let’s not kid ourselves, Bellator croaking the UFC on Nov. 15 had to be part of the equation in the UFC signing Punk. Bellator drew a record rating for an event which headlined by the Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar fight which was mocked for months going in, and featured a kickboxer with a 1-3 MMA record in Joe Schilling going against Melvin Manhoef. UFC’s PPV numbers for UFC 180 that night were said to be horrid. If Bellator can pull that sort of number with Ortiz and Bonanr, what type of damage would Bellator do to a UFC PPV by putting Punk’s MMA debut on Spike TV? Somehow, keeping Punk away from opposition with a history of gimmicks has slipped under the radar in all the chatter.
Anyway, I’m giving the UFC the benefit of the doubt, here, that they’re going to make the most out of Punk’s debut fight. The company has it’s next generation of stars on their way up, from Chris Weidman to Ronda Rousey to Conor McGregor and so on. But those fighters haven’t hit the Anderson Silva/Georges St-Pierre level of stardom/drawing power just yet. If you put Punk on a pay-per-view main card, and also load up the bill with some combo of Weidman/Rousey/McGregor/etc., then you’re exposing your new stars to a new audience. Punk’s debut fight, no matter who it’s against, isn’t likely to be a work of art, but that’s not the point.
Will Punk get licensed?
@JoshDaunhauer: If major commissions won’t approve CM Punk for a fight what’s Plan B?
Oh, you best believe some commission will sanction a Punk fight. Punk’s debut, if done right, is going to be a huge deal, and as long as, say, the UFC isn’t attempting to throw him in with Weidman, the commission’s share of the gate is going to override any other concerns.
All you have to do here is look at previous examples of “special attraction”-type matchmaking. Herschel Walker was 47 years old with no professional experience, and Florida signed off on having him fight someone named Greg Nagy. New Jersey has one of the best, if not the best, commission leader in the sport in Nick Lembo, and he signed off on Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson despite a 20-fight disparity between the two.
And then there are our friends over in Texas. They’re the ones who licensed Antonio Margarito to box when he was still under a ban in California for bludgeoning Shane Mosley with altered hand wraps under his gloves. They signed off on the farce that was Kimbo vs. Bo Cantrell in Corpus Christi. And the commission doctor came into the cage to check on Junior dos Santos, who was doing an imitation of sloth from the Goonies at the moment, and declared him a-ok to go out and continue getting slaughtered by Cain Velasquez. Do you really think Texas would have any compunction about signing off on a CM Punk fight? They wouldn’t, and nor would many other commissions, so long as the UFC matches Punk up with someone of a similar experience and ability level.
TUF 20 Finale
@lee_jordan: Who’d u think will be the first cookies monster challenger? If not Paige VanZant where does she fit in the pic?
We should have our answer today, actually. Claudia Gadelha meets Joanna Jędrzejczyk at UFC on FOX 13. Not only is Gadelha 12-0 with eight finishes, but she twice had to pull out of fights with Esparza in Invicta, including once when she fell ill after weighing in for the fight. Esparza made no secret of the fact she wasn’t happy about the last one. So a Gadelha win would give UFC an easy-to-sell grudge match. JJ, meanwhile, is also undefeated, won in her UFC debut, and handing Gadelha her first career loss would be as impressive a statement as you can make for a title shot.
As for Paige, she’s only 20 years old and has five pro fights. Give her some time to develop. If she was to meet Esparza now, it would probably look a lot like last night’s fight with Rose Namajunas. Speaking of which …
Next for Namajunas?
@RuckerYeah: Bummed my girl Rose lost! What’s next for her?
I wouldn’t get too down on Thug Rose just yet. She’s just 22 years old. That was just her fifth official pro fight. She made the most of her TUF opportunity, developed a fan following, and just happened to run into a more experienced opponent in Esparza. That was the sort of fight a talented young fighter learns from. With the proper adjustments, Namajunas will be right back into the mix.
Not sure who just yet, but it has to be someone in the top tier. Penne is a natural 105 pounder. She was the inaugural Invicta atomweight champ. She’s fighting up in weight because this is her opportunity to be a part of the big time. I can’t see her beating Esparza at this stage of the game, but she’s going to be a tough out for anyone in the division.
Rogan and Schaub
@sigep422wesg: did @joerogan cross a line with his comments to @BrendanSchaub on the podcast?
Not at all. Not only did Rogan not cross the line, but Schaub is lucky to have a friend as concerned for his well-being and as willing to lay it out straight as Rogan did. So many fighters in Schaub’s position – the guys who have had decent success and carved out a niche, but have clearly reached a level they’re never getting past – have flunkies in their ear making excuses for their losses and convincing them with a tweak or two here and there, they’ll be champion. By the time these fighters figure out they’re getting smoke blown up their backsides, their career is spiraling downward and the leeches have moved on to the next fighter.
Was the now-notorious podcast a comfortable listen? Hell no. Rogan has a pretty unique knack for plowing his way through cringeworthy moments. Maybe he didn’t need to be quite as harsh as he came off, and maybe it was a conversation which could have happened behind closed doors. But even if it was tough to sit through Rogan was doing pretty much the whole MMA community a service by forcing us to sit listen. I don’t know about you, but too often I tend to shoo away thoughts about concussions and brain trauma in MMA with the justification that no one is forced into the sport. The competitors love what they’re doing and participate of their own free will. But we all on some level have to compartmentalize the fact real damage is being done to real people, and we’d have to be heartless to turn a blind eye to the long-term effects.
Schaub made one valid counterpoint during the segment: That Rogan has a ton of money in the bank and other options if he really did decide to walk away from commentary, something most fighters don’t have. Let’s not forget that when Rogan first started doing this, he was widely regarded as the goofball from Fear Factor. His exposure during the UFC’s peak helped him remake his image and springboard to success in other ventures. You can see why Schaub would point it’s convenient for Rogan to change his mind on brain trauma now, instead of a decade ago. But that still doesn’t change the essential truth behind Rogan’s words, and the fact they came from the heart.
Can Junior be champ again?
@sigep422wesg: Will @junior_cigano ever get another title shot wth @cainmma as the champ??
Will dos Santos challenge for Cain’s heavyweight title? Not likely. But that’s not to say there’s no path for dos Santos to get to the title. Let’s say Velasquez stays out long enough that interim champion Fabricio Werdum is promoted to the full championship. Given Velasquez’s injury history, that’s not farfetched. Werdum, of course, was cut from the UFC back in 2008 after getting KOd in by the debuting JDS. In the absence of Cain, dos Santos vs. Werdum would be a bankable main event. And that, boys and girls, is why you continue competing when you’re in a spot like Joseph Benavidez or Benson Henderson. The situation can and will change in the blink of an eye.
A new UFC welterweight champion was crowned last weekend. The first UFC strawweight champ was crowned Friday night. A murderer’s row of heavyweights is lined up for UFC on FOX 13 Saturday night.
And still I got more questions on CM Punk than anything else. So let’s jump right into things.
All things CM Punk
@Steven1CR my question: Are you getting enough cm punk related questions?
Yeah, and I don’t mind. I knew the UFC had scored a PR win the morning after UFC 181. By mid-morning, my phone and my Facebook messenger had blown up with people asking about Punk (An aside: Until or unless my editor tells me otherwise, I’m going with Phil Brooks as “CM Punk.” If you were okay with “Mirko Cro Cop,” “Kimbo Slice,” “Renan Barao,” etc., then it’s a little weird to suddenly get upset about using stage names). Those asking about Punk were by and large either a. former hardcore fans who had slacked off over the past couple years and now only tune in for the few events which cut through the clutter, or b. casual fans who had fallen off entirely.
These people were basically just fascinated by the deal. What they weren’t doing was gnashing their teeth over a pro wrestler invading a real sport, or whether this will kill the credibility of grown men stripping half naked in front of thousands of people and kicking the bejeezus out of one another in a cage.
Let’s not kid ourselves, Bellator croaking the UFC on Nov. 15 had to be part of the equation in the UFC signing Punk. Bellator drew a record rating for an event which headlined by the Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar fight which was mocked for months going in, and featured a kickboxer with a 1-3 MMA record in Joe Schilling going against Melvin Manhoef. UFC’s PPV numbers for UFC 180 that night were said to be horrid. If Bellator can pull that sort of number with Ortiz and Bonanr, what type of damage would Bellator do to a UFC PPV by putting Punk’s MMA debut on Spike TV? Somehow, keeping Punk away from opposition with a history of gimmicks has slipped under the radar in all the chatter.
Anyway, I’m giving the UFC the benefit of the doubt, here, that they’re going to make the most out of Punk’s debut fight. The company has it’s next generation of stars on their way up, from Chris Weidman to Ronda Rousey to Conor McGregor and so on. But those fighters haven’t hit the Anderson Silva/Georges St-Pierre level of stardom/drawing power just yet. If you put Punk on a pay-per-view main card, and also load up the bill with some combo of Weidman/Rousey/McGregor/etc., then you’re exposing your new stars to a new audience. Punk’s debut fight, no matter who it’s against, isn’t likely to be a work of art, but that’s not the point.
Will Punk get licensed?
@JoshDaunhauer: If major commissions won’t approve CM Punk for a fight what’s Plan B?
Oh, you best believe some commission will sanction a Punk fight. Punk’s debut, if done right, is going to be a huge deal, and as long as, say, the UFC isn’t attempting to throw him in with Weidman, the commission’s share of the gate is going to override any other concerns.
All you have to do here is look at previous examples of “special attraction”-type matchmaking. Herschel Walker was 47 years old with no professional experience, and Florida signed off on having him fight someone named Greg Nagy. New Jersey has one of the best, if not the best, commission leader in the sport in Nick Lembo, and he signed off on Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson despite a 20-fight disparity between the two.
And then there are our friends over in Texas. They’re the ones who licensed Antonio Margarito to box when he was still under a ban in California for bludgeoning Shane Mosley with altered hand wraps under his gloves. They signed off on the farce that was Kimbo vs. Bo Cantrell in Corpus Christi. And the commission doctor came into the cage to check on Junior dos Santos, who was doing an imitation of sloth from the Goonies at the moment, and declared him a-ok to go out and continue getting slaughtered by Cain Velasquez. Do you really think Texas would have any compunction about signing off on a CM Punk fight? They wouldn’t, and nor would many other commissions, so long as the UFC matches Punk up with someone of a similar experience and ability level.
TUF 20 Finale
@lee_jordan: Who’d u think will be the first cookies monster challenger? If not Paige VanZant where does she fit in the pic?
We should have our answer today, actually. Claudia Gadelha meets Joanna J?drzejczyk at UFC on FOX 13. Not only is Gadelha 12-0 with eight finishes, but she twice had to pull out of fights with Esparza in Invicta, including once when she fell ill after weighing in for the fight. Esparza made no secret of the fact she wasn’t happy about the last one. So a Gadelha win would give UFC an easy-to-sell grudge match. JJ, meanwhile, is also undefeated, won in her UFC debut, and handing Gadelha her first career loss would be as impressive a statement as you can make for a title shot.
As for Paige, she’s only 20 years old and has five pro fights. Give her some time to develop. If she was to meet Esparza now, it would probably look a lot like last night’s fight with Rose Namajunas. Speaking of which …
Next for Namajunas?
@RuckerYeah: Bummed my girl Rose lost! What’s next for her?
I wouldn’t get too down on Thug Rose just yet. She’s just 22 years old. That was just her fifth official pro fight. She made the most of her TUF opportunity, developed a fan following, and just happened to run into a more experienced opponent in Esparza. That was the sort of fight a talented young fighter learns from. With the proper adjustments, Namajunas will be right back into the mix.
Not sure who just yet, but it has to be someone in the top tier. Penne is a natural 105 pounder. She was the inaugural Invicta atomweight champ. She’s fighting up in weight because this is her opportunity to be a part of the big time. I can’t see her beating Esparza at this stage of the game, but she’s going to be a tough out for anyone in the division.
Rogan and Schaub
@sigep422wesg: did @joerogan cross a line with his comments to @BrendanSchaub on the podcast?
Not at all. Not only did Rogan not cross the line, but Schaub is lucky to have a friend as concerned for his well-being and as willing to lay it out straight as Rogan did. So many fighters in Schaub’s position – the guys who have had decent success and carved out a niche, but have clearly reached a level they’re never getting past – have flunkies in their ear making excuses for their losses and convincing them with a tweak or two here and there, they’ll be champion. By the time these fighters figure out they’re getting smoke blown up their backsides, their career is spiraling downward and the leeches have moved on to the next fighter.
Was the now-notorious podcast a comfortable listen? Hell no. Rogan has a pretty unique knack for plowing his way through cringeworthy moments. Maybe he didn’t need to be quite as harsh as he came off, and maybe it was a conversation which could have happened behind closed doors. But even if it was tough to sit through Rogan was doing pretty much the whole MMA community a service by forcing us to sit listen. I don’t know about you, but too often I tend to shoo away thoughts about concussions and brain trauma in MMA with the justification that no one is forced into the sport. The competitors love what they’re doing and participate of their own free will. But we all on some level have to compartmentalize the fact real damage is being done to real people, and we’d have to be heartless to turn a blind eye to the long-term effects.
Schaub made one valid counterpoint during the segment: That Rogan has a ton of money in the bank and other options if he really did decide to walk away from commentary, something most fighters don’t have. Let’s not forget that when Rogan first started doing this, he was widely regarded as the goofball from Fear Factor. His exposure during the UFC’s peak helped him remake his image and springboard to success in other ventures. You can see why Schaub would point it’s convenient for Rogan to change his mind on brain trauma now, instead of a decade ago. But that still doesn’t change the essential truth behind Rogan’s words, and the fact they came from the heart.
Can Junior be champ again?
@sigep422wesg: Will @junior_cigano ever get another title shot wth @cainmma as the champ??
Will dos Santos challenge for Cain’s heavyweight title? Not likely. But that’s not to say there’s no path for dos Santos to get to the title. Let’s say Velasquez stays out long enough that interim champion Fabricio Werdum is promoted to the full championship. Given Velasquez’s injury history, that’s not farfetched. Werdum, of course, was cut from the UFC back in 2008 after getting KOd in by the debuting JDS. In the absence of Cain, dos Santos vs. Werdum would be a bankable main event. And that, boys and girls, is why you continue competing when you’re in a spot like Joseph Benavidez or Benson Henderson. The situation can and will change in the blink of an eye.
