CM Punk Showed Pro Wrestlers They Belong Inside A Ring, Not UFC’s Octagon

CM Punk made his long talked about debut for the UFC this past weekend. UFC 203 was truly an embarrassment to the sport.

From the moment Punk sprinted towards Mickey Gall and swung with a terrible right hand, anyone who watches the sport knew it was over. Gall scored an easy takedown, threw a few shots to Punk’s head and thankfully ended the beating with a rear-naked choke.

For Punk, his journey and all the talk meant nothing. We saw what happens when someone with zero MMA experience enters the elite UFC. Gall isn’t the biggest star and while he has some quick submission wins, he’s never fought anyone with a winning record.

To Gall’s credit, he could have left Punk’s face worse than it was—which is a little hard to imagine considering the welts, bruises and damaged ear Punk took from only a handful of shots.

Heading into the fight, Punk had no major athletic background like Brock Lesnar or Kurt Angle. He’s been a wrestler since being a teenager and that’s all he knows. He might have fought at WrestleMania against some of the biggest names in wrestling, but the UFC is a different animal. Even top ranked fighters who have their first fight inside the Octagon admit it’s difficult to adjust.

Punk was basically thrown to the wolves for pay per view buyrates and to draw WWE fans to a different product. We’ll see if it worked, but it was costly.

Punk apparently pocketed $500,000 to show up and he’ll likely get a cut of the pay per view buyrates. It’s very likely Punk makes over $1 million dollars after everything is totaled.

Was it worth it?

This was a chance for Punk to accomplish a dream and he can now check this off. We learned several things from Punk’s likely only UFC fight. Punk wasn’t prepared to compete against anyone on the professional level and would have been better suited in an amateur contest against someone with a 0-0 record. Anyone in WWE who thinks they can transition into MMA is nuts (with the exception being Lesanr). They’re two different worlds. Punk could have been seriously hurt and that sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I do give Punk credit for trying, but after the fight he even knew that he bit off more than he could chew. Punk will likely fight again since I don’t see him returning to WWE. His best bet is to see if Bellator is interested if he’s interested in another big pay day. If he wants to work on improving and have a real shot at winning, go to one of the minor leagues like Titan FC or Legacy FC. They’re not the UFC, but at least Punk won’t get embarrassed.

Pro wrestlers need to worry about the ring and fighters should concentrate on the Octagon.