UFC 203 Aftermath: CM Punk and lessons for new UFC ownership

“This is what happens when a brown belt rolls with a white belt.”

The matchup between CM Punk and Mickey Gall was less than a minute old when Joe Rogan decided he couldn’t go along with the hype anymore.

You could practically feel the longtime UFC color commentator gritting his teeth as he forced his way through the last-minute hype Saturday night leading up to the UFC 203 pay-per-view broadcast from Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena. But once the fight started, and Gall shot for a double-leg and began to pick Punk apart, there was no use pretending anymore. The documentaries building up the former pro wrestler’s debut and the testimonials from coaches like Duke Roufus and teammates like Tyron Woodley were all put to lie when a competitor with two pro fights made Punk look like the rank amateur he was. So Rogan, carrying the weight of the product’s credibility, correctly called the action for what it was.

Don’t mistake this for personal animosity toward Phil Brooks, the guy behind the CM Punk character. He was a UFC superfan who always had the “what if?” question in the back of his brain. He was afforded the opportunity to live it out and make some money along the way. You shouldn’t begrudge him for seizing the chance when it was presented to him.

It’s also worth remembering that the decision to sign Punk back in Dec. 2014 wasn’t made in a vacuum. This was just weeks after Bellator rattled the MMA world with a killer cable rating for Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar, which did a ground-and-pound job on UFC 180’s buyrates. So much time has passed since Punk signed that it’s been forgotten that he almost assuredly would have fought for Bellator by now, and drawn another giant rating, if the UFC hadn’t snapped him up at that precise moment in time.

Still, for all the relentless BS that swirls around the mixed martial arts world, to steal a phrase from another sport, Octagon don’t lie. As Gall made a mercy killing of the Punk experiment, there was no denying this was a sports fantasy camp gone awry (And hey, that crew of wrestlers who were butthurt over Conor McGregor’s comments last month sure seemed to be silent on Twitter last night).

Maybe UFC 203 drew in a bunch of new casual viewers, though that number was likely down from what it would have been even a year ago, given how long Punk was out of the spotlight. If those viewers stuck around to see the thrilling main event between Stipe Miocic and Alistair Overeem, and became new fans in the process, the exercise may have been worth it after all.

The best lesson from the Punk experiment, though, just might be the timely message it sends to the UFC’s new ownership group. WME-IMG is mainly an entertainment conglomerate. While mixed martial arts often blurs the line between sports and entertainment, there is, in fact, still a line, and you better be very careful if and when you decide to cross it.

UFC 203 quotes

“I don’t remember tapping out, I just remember punching his face repeatedly until he was unconscious.” — Stipe Miocic, on Alistair Overeem’s concussed claim that Miocic tapped to his guillotine attempt.

“I’m beating myself up way more than I got beat up. I’m supremely disappointed. … I wanted to win. I wanted to perform. It didn’t happen.” –Punk on his loss

“Between me and Punk, before tonight, we had a combined two fights. I was 2-0 and he was 0-0. It was kind of a weird thing. But he was saying, ‘always believe you belong.’ And it was a motivational, positive message. It was nice of him.” — Gall, on words …

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