CM Punk: Respect for the Icon

With UFC 203 just around the corner, I wanted to spotlight the upcoming fight slated for the card for former WWE Superstar CM Punk. On September 10, CM Punk will finally make his highly anticipated, long awaited MMA debut. No one has to agree, but I respect CM Punk for setting his goals and doing what he set out to do. I for one will be tuning in.

CM Punk making it to the Octagon seemed like it would never happen at one point. CM Punk signed with the UFC way back in 2014. The problem? CM Punk hadn’t even started training to fight yet. Hell, he hadn’t even joined a gym to start his MMA training. Seeing as to how CM Punk comes from the wrestling world, where fans can get very impatient, trying to understand that rushing to the cage is not exactly something he should do ahead of the first pro fight of his career. I think CM Punk does deserve credit, that for good or ill, he took his time for this fight. When he got hurt or injured, he took time off to heal. He’s been training at Roufusport, the training camp for such UFC champions as Anthony Pettis and Tyron Woodley, for well over a year. Since Punk is not going to be fighting at an amateur level, he can’t just say he trained for six months and decide he’s an MMA fighter. In that respect, this fight coming over a year and a half after the UFC announced Punk’s fighting seemed rather reasonable because he actually hadn’t had any formal MMA training yet.

It doesn’t really matter a vocal minority fans think about this fight or Punk fighting in the UFC. The reason? Much of the same complaints were levied against Brock Lesnar joining the UFC roster back in 2008. People will claim, “Oh, Lesnar actually had a legitimate NCAA wrestling background. He was a Division I champion!” That’s all true, but to the haters, none of that really mattered in 2008. Lesnar was a guy with just one pro fight to his name. He was essentially given a free ride into the UFC and given a top spot. He lost his first fight to Frank Mir. However, after winning one fight against Heath Herring, Lesnar was granted almost an immediate title shot against reigning champion Randy Couture, fresh off a return from a lengthy dispute with the UFC. And for better or worse, I don’t think those were bad decisions. Lesnar was put in the deep end against veterans, and at the time, he succeeded. He was a big draw for the company and drew a lot of attention to the sport. MMA vastly grew and exploded in the last seven years thanks in large part to Lesnar’s presence. In fact, many of the critics and pundits who often decried Lesnar and considered his association with the sport illegitimate were constantly writing about him while he was gone, eager to see him come back. It produced numerous articles mentioning false rumors of a possible return to the sport for Lesnar. Mind you, this is years before he actually came back at UFC 200.

If I’m trying to make a point here regarding CM Punk, at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what the critics think or even what I think. What matters is CM Punk is accomplishing his goal. He wanted to become a professional fighter, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t have to listen to and shouldn’t listen to the critics or the haters. Even if he loses spectacularly, on many levels, he will still prove wrong the people who doubted he would ever actually step into the cage and fight.

Does Punk “deserve” this opportunity. Maybe not, but one of my longtime favorite UFC fighters has had a mantra in the past in regards to people who think they deserve anything in this sport. After he would go in impressive wins, Brown would tell reporters (via MMAWeekly), “In this sport you get what you earn, not what you deserve.” Punk may not deserve this opportunity, but he arguably on some level has earned it. Maybe he didn’t earn it by toiling away on the amateur scene and working his way up from smaller promotions. But he has earned it by becoming one of the top “sports entertainment” stars in the world. And Punk did that largely on his own. He did it largely with his own two hands because so often WWE management didn’t believe in him. It was through CM Punk’s work that he became one of the hottest stars in wrestling in 2011, and he even became a bigger merchandise seller than John Cena. The point is that CM Punk has worked, and he has toiled very hard. He has built a significant, fervent and loyal fanbase. And because of that work, he was able to earn a spot on the UFC roster.

As for the hypocrites saying this makes the sport looks like a joke, it’s symbolic of how hypocritical, forgetful and fickle the MMA fanbase is. Pride FC would frequently bring in pro wrestlers with virtually no MMA experience and book them them in MMA fights. Yoshihiro Takayama didn’t have an MMA record when he joined Pride FC and lost every single fight there. Yet no one complained when Takayama was matched up with former UFC tournament champion Don Frye, 15-1 at the time, for Takayama’s third fight. In fact, it was largely considered Fight of the Year and one of the best fights of all time. Pride FC did this on many occasions, and yet to this day, the MMA fandom still worships Pride FC like it did no wrong.

Now I would say that if Pride FC had any flaws, it’s that it would book some wonky, sideshow attraction fights far too often. Does CM Punk having a fight in the UFC have a bit of the sideshow attraction feel to it. Maybe it does, but I generally see this is as more of a special one-off deal. At this point, I want to see what’s going to happen when CM Punk fights. Deep down, a part of me wants to see CM Punk come out of it with a win just to shut everyone up. As unlikely as that may be, to me it just proves yet again how crazy and unpredictable this sport will be. At the end of the day, all that matters is what CM Punk thinks. Not the fans or the critics, but CM Punk. The fans and pundits of this sport often delude themselves into believing fighters are unbeatable, only to be proven wrong. So is it that unbelievable that a former pro wrestler could win an MMA fight? Maybe. But I do not think CM Punk is wrong for trying. At the end of the day, hats off to CM Punk for doing what he set out to do on his terms.

Jeffrey Harris is 411mania’s resident Jack of All Trades and has covered MMA for the site since 2008. You can shoot him an e-mail at [email protected] or hit him up on Facebook. He also co-hosts the 411 Ground & Pound Radio podcast along with Robert Winfree. You can listen to the latest episode of the podcast in the player below.