The worlds of pro wrestling and mixed martial arts were merged once again this past Saturday. After 18 months of being signed to the promotion, CM Punk made his debut at UFC 203. It wasn’t only his first UFC fight, it was his MMA debut also. The signing of (real name) Phillip Brooks was met
The worlds of pro wrestling and mixed martial arts were merged once again this past Saturday. After 18 months of being signed to the promotion, CM Punk made his debut at UFC 203. It wasn’t only his first UFC fight, it was his MMA debut also. The signing of (real name) Phillip Brooks was met with a fair dose of criticism from fighters and fans. Following such a long period between his signing and first fight, CM Punk’s debut was a wash in all respects.
Mickey Gall took the initiative and dominated Punk from the opening bell. Taking just seconds to get his bewildered foe to the canvas, Gall pummelled the former WWE star with conviction. The BJJ brown belt sunk in a fight ending choke which also apparently ended the CM Punk experiment in the UFC. Where the ex-WWE champion scored a huge victory was in the UFC 203 salaries. Although he didn’t top the list, Brooks made a cool $500K. That’s a staggering 16.6 times the $30K (15 to show + 15 to win) Gall made.
The First & Last?
Was this the first and last time we’ll see CM Punk in the UFC? According to UFC president Dana White, most probably the WWE veteran won’t be having his next fight under the same promotion. In terms of UFC fighters getting in the WWE mix, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has been trolling his way in to pro wrestler’s hearts for a few weeks now. Blasting the entire WWE roster as ‘pussies,’ the brash Irishman started a social media frenzy with some of pro wrestling’s biggest stars.
When CM Punk got squashed at UFC 203, there was obviously a lot of talk from his old colleagues in the WWE. The wrestling organization even put on a re-enactment of Punk’s UFC loss featuring Dolph Ziggler and The Miz. Someone who was a little less harsh was Randy Orton. ‘The Viper’ voiced his respect towards Punk, but also took the opportunity to fire a few shots at Conor McGregor too.
Like and respect are two different things. I admire him for having the courage to fight a more experienced fighter. https://t.co/eEXYjciGE9
The freak show between Mickey Gall and former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) champion CM Punk has finally come to a close, as Gall made quick work of the former professional wrestling star in their main card clash this past Saturday (September 13, 2016). Gall joined Ariel Helwani on this past Monday’s episode of The MMA
The freak show between Mickey Gall and former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) champion CM Punk has finally come to a close, as Gall made quick work of the former professional wrestling star in their main card clash this past Saturday (September 13, 2016).
Gall joined Ariel Helwani on this past Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, courtesy of MMA Fighting, and revealed that he had a strong sense of obligation to the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) to make an example out of Punk:
“I 100 percent felt a strong obligation to make an example out of him,” Gall said. “I felt indebted to my sport, to the veterans of my sport — everyone in my sport — to go in there and dominate every second of this fight.”
The 24-year-old welterweight prospect opened up the contest against Punk by shooting in on the Roufusport product, and dominating him on the ground before securing a rear-naked choke for the submission win:
“I kind of expected it,” Gall said. “I had a feeling he was gonna feel like, ‘I have something to prove, I’m a fighter. I’m gonna come in there and be a tough fighter.’
“Once I get in there, I let my training take over. I’m not thinking in there. He crossed the line in my head of how far he should be. I wanted to keep him at a certain range. When you come in that hot, I’m gonna take you down.
“I figured he’d be tough, man,” Gall said. “Those wrestlers, they’re tough guys. They’re slamming themselves around and stuff. It was pretty much what I expected. I knew once he got in there with me, I was gonna be able to just dominate him.”
Although Gall defeated Punk by showing off his signature ground game, the Looking For A Fight alumni desperately wanted to knockout Punk and showcase his striking game as well:
“I’ve been ruthless,” Gall said. “I’ve just been really committed and I’ve been really smart about it. I saw the videos of him and I would have liked to have knocked him out. I wanted a knockout. That was the plan.”
You can check out Gall’s full interview on The MMA Hour here:
If there’s one principal to live by when it comes to combat sports it’s this: you need to be all in or not all. Phil “CM Punk” Brooks had his first and possibly last fight at UFC 203 this past weekend. Now, before you start thinking that this will be a roast of CM Punk, let me save you the time and tell you that you’re dead wrong. If anything CM Punk should be commended for putting everything on the line. In fact, he took MMA very seriously and was all in.
If there’s one principal to live by when it comes to combat sports it’s this: you need to be all in or not all. Phil “CM Punk” Brooks had his first and possibly last fight at UFC 203 this past weekend. Now, before you start thinking that this will be a roast of CM Punk, let me save you the time and tell you that you’re dead wrong. If anything CM Punk should be commended for putting everything on the line. In fact, he took MMA very seriously and was all in.
But sometimes it isn’t enough.
What Phil Brooks had to learn on Saturday night is usually something that individuals learn early on in their fighting careers on a local circuit, with few eyes on them. It’s in the small time shows that a person realizes if they have that absolute drive to compete at the highest levels of the sport. Unfortunately CM Punk took another route to the big show.
CM Punk chose to fight his first match in the UFC with millions of eyes on him. Granted, that takes a ton of heart and grit, but ultimately it proved that combat sports aren’t something you simply experiment with. When it comes to fighting it takes a certain dedication, more than simply saying “hey, I’ll give this a shot.” It takes a single-minded commitment nearing on obsession.
Dammit, it still sounds like I’m being harsh on CM Punk. But in reality, whether you love him, hate him, or feel anything in between, you do have to respect the man. Fighting in front of a crowd of individuals in a nerve racking experience. To do so in front of millions is something else entirely. CM Punk put himself on the line and that is something remarkable to behold. But where he may have failed, perhaps another UFC hopeful will examine the story of Phil Brooks and see exactly where he went wrong and right. Who knows, CM Punk’s inspirational turn as a short-lived mixed martial artist is exactly the kind of tale that will allow others to ask themselves the tough question. Just how bad do you want it and what are you willing to go through to get it?
What do you think of CM Punk’s MMA saga?
Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.
Zingano makes several good points, but the fact of that matter is that Punk brought a huge name-value with him to the UFC from his days in the WWE. That is why the UFC was willing to give him such financial considerations despite having never competed before inside the cage.
The Ohio Athletic Commission released the UFC 203 salaries on Monday, and the UFC had to pay some of the top tier fighters who took part in the event some big money. CM Punk earned $500,000 for making his MMA debut. Stipe Miocic earned $600,000 for defending his UFC heavyweight title against Alistair Overeem, who
The Ohio Athletic Commission released the UFC 203 salaries on Monday, and the UFC had to pay some of the top tier fighters who took part in the event some big money. CM Punk earned $500,000 for making his MMA debut. Stipe Miocic earned $600,000 for defending his UFC heavyweight title against Alistair Overeem, who earned $800,000.
UFC 203 took place on Saturday, September 10th, at The Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The UFC Fight Pass prelims featured one bout at 7 p.m. ET while the FOX Sports 1 prelims featured four bouts at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The main card aired on traditional pay-per-view with five bouts at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.
In his MMA and UFC debut at UFC 203 on Saturday night, CM Punk got beaten up. Drubbed. Shellacked. Dominated. Mollywhopped. Trounced. Clobbered. Crushed. Thrashed.
You get the idea.
The 37-year-old former professional wrestler walked toward his opponen…
In his MMA and UFC debut at UFC 203 on Saturday night, CM Punk got beaten up. Drubbed. Shellacked. Dominated. Mollywhopped. Trounced. Clobbered. Crushed. Thrashed.
You get the idea.
The 37-year-old former professional wrestler walked toward his opponent, Mickey Gall, and never saw the double-leg takedown coming. Gall simply waited for Punk to come too far forward, ducked under and drove through, planting him against the fence before picking him up and slamming him to the ground.
A vicious barrage of ground strikes opened up a series of guard passes, and before long, Gall was on Punk’s back looking for the submission. It was only a matter of time before the 24-year-old New Jersey native, a veteran of two professional fights and several amateur bouts, eventually sunk in the rear-naked choke for the finish.
At no point did CM Punk offer anything other than defense, and even that was limited. Gall needed just over two minutes to land, per FightMetric, 20 strikes, pass to dominant positions three times and attempt two submissions.
The most striking thing about the bout wasn’t that CM Punk lost—he was a heavy underdog and few had picked him to win—but that anybody, anywhere thought the fight would go any differently than it did. What happened when CM Punk and Gall met in the Octagon is exactly what you should expect to happen when an actual professional MMA competitor fights a neophyte hobbyist.
To be clear, this isn’t a value judgment about whether CM Punk deserved to be in the UFC, whether he should have gone through with the fight or what kind of person he is. Some media members, such as ESPN’s ArashMarkazi, thought that making the attempt to fight professionally was inspiring.
In his post-fight speech, CM Punk emphasized this. “Believe in yourself. Sometimes the outcome isn’t what you desire it to be, but the true failure in life is not trying at all. I know it sounds preachy and kind of weird coming from a guy who just got beat up, but f–k it—this is the time of my life” (warning: Video contains NSFW language).
That’s not a bad sentiment, and if the hundreds of thousands or millions of people who heard it derive some motivation to pursue their dreams from CM Punk’s attempt to fight professionally, good for them. The world probably won’t be a worse place because people decide to try harder.
With that said, what happened in the Octagon plays out in gyms across the country every day. There are levels to MMA. It’s not just about effort, and it’s genuinely farcical to pretend that’s all that matters.
Gall beat CM Punk because he’s more skilled.
“This is what I want to do, man,” Gall said at the post-fight press conference (warning: NSFW language). “Since I was 16, every decision I made in my life was towards being here.”
Think about that for a moment. No matter how hard CM Punk worked in the 21 months since the UFC signed him, a time marred with various injuries and layoffs, he was never going to make up the gap in skill in that brief period. He was effectively an amateur making his debut.
Let’s say, very conservatively, that Gall spent an average of 10 hours a week in the gym in the six years he trained to be a professional fighter before CM Punk ever started to seriously work in MMA.
That’s at least 3,000 hours that Gall has spent on the mats drilling grappling and wrestling technique or rolling, hitting pads and working striking drills, sparring, and generally learning what it takes to be a professional fighter. He spent much of that time working with the Miller brothers, a pair of veteran fighters who know what it takes to compete at the highest level.
CM Punk was working from behind even before he stepped through the doors at Roufusport.
I’ve sparred with professional MMA fighters and professional kickboxers, and even when they were going light, they put a beating on me. Why?
They were better athletes, sure, but mostly they knew so, so much more about both the basics and the intricacies of fighting. They had a deeper understanding of technique in both variety and application, their fundamentals were sharper and they knew how to control the fight-or-flight response that threatens to overwhelm you and force you into making bad decisions in stressful situations.
Even the very worst professional fighters have invested thousands upon thousands of hours in developing those skills, and that’s not a gap that anyone, no matter how dedicated they are, can make up in 21 months of training, even with a good team.
That’s exactly what CM Punk was trying to do against Mickey Gall, and more than a statement about who deserves to be in the UFC or whether the UFC should be booking fights purely to draw eyeballs, this was a referendum on how much better professional fighters are at what they do than everybody else.
In the course of my career covering MMA, I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the sport’s elite gyms. I’ve watched practices and individual training sessions at Tristar, Jackson Wink MMA, Kings MMA, Black House and Team Alpha Male.
What watching those practices has made clear is how high the level of technical skill to be even a mediocre professional fighter really is. You grasp how many things they’ve worked on and trained for and their sheer depth of skill; what we see in the cage is just a minuscule fraction of their total knowledge. If you’re a fan of MMA who appreciates technique, it’s genuinely awe-inspiring to watch fighters hone their craft.
What’s even more striking, if you watch a session or two, is the realization they do that every single day, and usually more than once.
Think about how that knowledge compounds over time, the little tricks and details and intricacies they pick up in the course of thousands and thousands of hours.
A guy like Gall, who has spent his entire adult life in that kind of environment, has forgotten more about fighting than CM Punk could have possibly learned in the 21 months since they UFC signed him in December 2014.
That’s not an insult to CM Punk. It’s not hating on him to point this out. It’s not to say that he shouldn’t have gone through with the fight or that he shouldn’t have spent the last couple of years pursuing this goal, if it was a dream of his to fight as a professional. Good for him to get paid, presumably handsomely, for following his dreams.
It’s just a statement of fact, and it doesn’t care how you feel about it.
The competitors we see in the UFC are the product of years and years, thousands of hours, of focused, dedicated training. Everything they do routinely in the cage, from double-leg takedowns to jab-cross combinations to guillotine chokes, requires an incredible amount of skill to pull off. They’ve all worked hard and they’ve all followed their dreams to get there.
This fight, whether you think it was a farce and an insult to the sport of MMA—I’m not one of them—or an inspiration that will drive you to try harder to achieve your goals, should reinforce the audience’s respect for what professional fighters do each and every day.
Patrick Wyman is the Senior MMA Analyst for Bleacher Report and the co-host of the Heavy Hands Podcast, your source for the finer points of face-punching. For the history enthusiasts out there, he also hostsThe Fall of Rome Podcaston the end of the Roman Empire. He can be found on Twitter and on Facebook.
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Although Gall defeated Punk by showing off his signature ground game, the Looking For A Fight alumni desperately wanted to knockout Punk and showcase his striking game as well:
In his