CM Punk Gets Dominated In UFC Debut
It was ugly...
The wait is finally over and the question has been answered.
CM Punk stepped into the octagon Saturday night at UFC 203 at the Quicken Loans Arena for the promotion's first visit to Cleveland, Ohio to make his long-awaited debut in the sport of mixed martial arts, and it was not pretty. Facing a much younger yet more experienced Mickey Gall, the welterweight bout was over in 2:14 of the first round as the former pro wrestler suffered a brutal defeat by submission.
There was never much optimism from anyone other than Punk himself that this experiment would go well for Phil Brooks, and the end result was pretty much exactly what most fans and analysts expected it to be. The gap in skill between the two competitors was just too wide for the first timer to overcome.
As soon as the fight began the two met in the center of the cage, where Gall immediately shot in and secured a takedown on Punk, who pulled full guard. Mickey postured up and landed some big bombs on CM, doing damage and passing guard to maneuver into side control. Punk illegally attempted to use his feet against the cage to pry himself free, but the referee prevented it and Gall went to work.
At a little less than two minutes into the fight, the 24-year old BJJ brown belt took Punk's back and began nailing him with heavy shots to the head, eventually wrapping his arms around Punk's neck and applying a rear naked choke, forcing CM Punk to tap out.
After the finish, a clearly emotional and disappointed Punk spoke with Joe Rogan and had this to say:
"In life you go big or you go home. I just like to take challenges. This was a hell of a mountain to try to climb and I didn't get to the summit today. It doesn't mean I'm going to give up, it doesn't mean I'm going to stop. I appreciate all the support from everybody, obviously Mickey's a hell of a fighter...I will be back, believe it or not. This is the most fun I've ever had in my life, second best night of my life besides marrying my wife, obviously. I know there's a lot of doubters but listen, life's about falling down and getting up. Believe in yourself. Sometimes the outcome in life isn't always what you desire it to be, but the true failure isn't trying at all. I know that sounds preachy and kinda weird from a guy who just got beat up, but f*ck it. This was the time of my life. Thank you, Cleveland!"
In the post-fight press conference Punk - sporting a heavily bandaged ear and stitches above his eye - was non-committal about what his future holds other than standing by his comments that he wants to continue on this journey. Whether that will be as a member of the UFC roster or if he'll have to further his fight career on a smaller stage while gaining experience remains to be seen.
The visibly shaken star fought back tears while revealing that his wife, AJ told him she was proud of him, and added that he didn't get everything he wanted out of this experience because he didn't win, feeling that he let his coaches and his teammates down.
It's hard to say if we'll ever see CM Punk compete in mixed martial arts again, but if he is going to make another run at it he has a lot of work to do to get to the point where he can be competitive. Love him or hate him - and he is a polarizing personality - it's hard not to respect Punk for the effort he has put into this process.
For Mickey Gall, he should be thankful for CM Punk; he's fortunate to have been placed in the position he was. Without this opportunity due to the former WWE star's high profile, Gall, no matter how talented he may be, would have been fighting on prelims for years before breaking through to a main card spot, and that's assuming he was successful in his run. He used the platform of his post-fight interview to call out UFC golden boy and top prospect Sage Northcutt.
The results from the rest of the main card are as follows:
In the heavyweight title fight, Stipe Miocic (c) defeated Alistair Overeem by KO @ 4:25 of Rd 1.
Fabricio Werdum beat Travis Browne by unanimous decision to place himself back in contention for the heavyweight belt he recently lost.
Jimmie Rivera pulled out an impressive unanimous decision victory over the always game Urijah Faber in an exciting bantamweight bout.
Strawweight Jessica Andrade choked out Joanne Calderwood at 4:38 of the first round.