5 Reasons CM Punk Won't Succeed in UFC
A synopsis of why CM Punk will falter in his UFC career.
After close to 21 months of waiting, former 5-time WWE world champion, CM Punk will finally make his UFC debut on September 10th at UFC 203 in Cleveland. In his first foray into the world of mixed martial arts professional combat, the 37-year-old Punk will draw 24-year-old, New Brunswick, New Jersey native, Mickey Gall.
It’s been a long couple of years for Punk. After frustratingly walking out of the WWE in January of 2014 and then subsequently being released, Punk, seemingly out of the blue, signed a staggering 8-fight deal with Dana White and the UFC that December. After spending the following year and a half training under Duke Roufus at the Roufusport MMA Academy in Milwaukee, The Straight Edge Superstar will finally get his chance to prove whether he’s really a player in the MMA world, or just a guy being brought in for ratings.
A lot of questions will hopefully be answered at 203. Will Punk’s tireless training translate into UFC success? Is he a legit fighter or a sideshow act? After all the years wear and tear, has he started his MMA career too late? Will his opponent be too young and too strong for him to handle? All these questions and more will come to a head on September 10th. But for now, let’s focus on what Punk will have going against him at UFC 203 and why these five reasons will ultimately lead to a failed UFC run.
WWE.com
5. Age, Wear, and Tear
Sorry to break to this everyone, but MMA, like many other sports, is a young man’s game. There’s obviously some exceptions to this rule, but they are few and far between. Punk is 37, and with about 15 years of professional wrestling under his belt, an old 37. There’s no mystery about the toll that pro wrestling puts on a person’s body. There aren’t many retired wrestlers who are walking around completely healthy and Punk is, and will be no different. Going from one ring that tears your body apart to another that does the same is not exactly a recipe for success.
Take Ken Shamrock for example. Shamrock started off his MMA career with massive success that spanned three years. He won MMA tournaments of all over the globe in the UFC, Pride, and Pancrase while establishing himself as one of the best fighters in the world. But before Shamrock was ever a professional fighter, he was a professional wrestler, dabbling in some independent promotions from 1989 until 1993. In those four years, Ken wrestled in only 52 matches (cagematch.net).
Then in 1997 Shamrock was signed to the then WWF and over the course of the next 2 and a half years wrestled in over 400 pro wrestling matches. Late in 1999, Shamrock decided to leave pro wrestling and resume his mixed martial arts career. Then at 36, and with close to 500 matches on his body, Shamrock was completely ineffective back inside the cage. Simply put, the game had passed him by and although extremely physically fit, he could not hang with the new crop of fighters that had emerged. Look at the stats. Shamrock’s pre-WWF record was 23-5-2. His post-WWF record, 5-12.
Punk has wrestled in three times the amount of matches that Shamrock ever did. Had he began this journey about 10 years and a thousand matches or so ago, his chances would be much better.
4. Injuries
On a similar subject as the previous slide, with professional wrestling, comes injuries and Punk has been no stranger to them. Even the lucky wrestlers who avoid major injuries still get banged up on a regular basis. Try to name five main event type wrestlers who have not undergone any major surgeries in their career. Heck, make it three. It comes with the territory much like it does with MMA.
Punk, in his wrestling career, suffered injuries to his nose, ear drum, hip, ribs, shoulder, and knees among other small nagging ones. In fact, part of his reasoning when he walked away from the company before his contract was up was due to multiple injuries that he was nursing without any time to heal. His feud with Ryback seemed to take years off his career as well, as you can read about here from his interview on Colt Cabana’s podcast.
The injuries have continued on with Punk now as a mixed martial artist. Less than a year into his training, he required shoulder surgery. This was one of those nagging injuries from his WWE days. 5 months later he herniated a disc in his back which led to another surgery, both injuries causing Punk to delay his UFC debut. Battle wounds that Punk has earned over the years will not help him while he attempts to survive in the most competitive MMA company in the world.
WWE.com
3. Lack of a Combat Background
Most people that end up thriving in the world of MMA are people who already have some type of background in combat. You don’t have to look much further than the WWE to see that. Brock Lesnar made a pretty smooth transition into MMA based on the fact that he was a national wrestling champion at the collegiate level. An amateur wrestling base is the most common way to enter the ranks of MMA.
Even for older fighters like Punk, the switch to MMA is much easier with some combat experience. At 34 years old, UFC legend Randy Couture made his foray into MMA after also being a collegiate champion as well as a 3-time Olympic alternate in Greco-Roman wrestling. He’d go on to win 5 UFC championships, his last one coming at age 42.
Cung Le is another example but from a different discipline. Before getting into MMA, Le was one of the most decorated martial artists in the world, displaying his acumen in Sanshou kickboxing on professional stages for close to a decade. This would translate into vicious MMA striking as he laid waste to his first 6 opponents all by way of knockout before capturing the StrikeForce Middleweight Championship.
The list goes on and on. Damien Maia (Judo, Brazilian Ju Jitsu), Georges St. Pierre (Kyokushin Karate), Lyoto Machida (Shotokan Karate), Fedor Emelianenko (Sambo), Anderson Silva (Muay Thai). Punk has none of these. Outside of 18 months of twice-interrupted training, he’ll be going into his fight as about as amateur as gets. Unless Duke Roufus is a miracle worker, this could be a very long, or a very quick night for Punk.
2. Mickey Gall is Pretty Good
It seems lost upon all the hoopla behind CM Punk’s UFC debut that 24-year-old Mickey Gall seems to be a good fighter and a legit prospect. It’s still very early in his MMA career but Gall has already had two amateur fights and two professional fights. His two professional fights have lasted a combined 3:38 and both have ended with Gall submitting his opponent with a rear naked choke, the latter of the two wins being his UFC debut. Gall has already accomplished what Punk is attempting in their UFC 203 bout.
Now I’m not putting Gall in the UFC Hall Of Fame just yet. His two pro wins have come against guys also making their debuts so he hasn’t been really tested. But where Punk may have his biggest (and possibly only) advantage is in training camps. Roufusport has turned out world champions in Anthony Pettis and Ben Askren along with UFC contenders Sergio Pettis, Erik Koch, Chico Camus, and Dustin Ortiz. Gall trains at UFC stalwart Jim Miller’s gym in New Jersey, a very new gym with much less prestige than that of Roufus’ facility.
However, at the end of the day, Gall is younger, more experienced, and as evidenced by his 45-second destruction of Mike Jackson in February, he has power and a killer instinct. As much as Punk is putting on the line, Gall is putting up more. The idea of losing to a former pro wrestler with zero MMA experience could be a career destroyer for Gall. For that reason, Gall will be hungry and dangerous. All these things added up, Punk will have his hands full with Gall and trying to fight off a guy 13 years his junior, may be a task that Punk is not prepared for.
1. Punk Doesn’t Appear to Be That Good
Just because Punk hasn’t had an official fight inside the octagon, that hasn’t stopped the MMA media from following him and his training around pretty much daily. It seems like every day there is a new news article about Punk’s progress, or lack thereof. Last March Cagesideseats.com reported that Punk couldn’t let his pro wrestling instincts go. Then in February of this year, breakingwrestlingnews.com reported that according to Michael Bisping, Punk had lost 15 of his 16 test fights in the gym. And most recently, wrestlezone.com reported that Punk has not progressed enough as a fighter and that Mickey Gall will “run through him”. These are not exactly ringing endorsements.
Now no one will really know just how much Punk has to offer in the octagon until he actually does it but if any of these reports are accurate, he might get embarrassed. This venture for Punk cannot be easy. For all the factors that I’ve listed already, his overall skill might be the biggest issue. Just like a whole bunch of MMA fighters might not be good pro wrestlers, this pro wrestler might not be good at fighting, and there’s no shame in it one way or the other.
September 10th will be a huge night for CM Punk’s future. If he wins or even if he loses in competitive fashion his UFC career will continue. If he gets dusted by Gall, his 8-fight deal may very quickly become a one and done.
More from Daily DDT
This article originally appeared on 
