Punk vs Gall

[juggernaut666]

True. I mainly didn't recall how hyped or non-hyped Brock was coming in, but Brock did get his MMA cherry broke outside of the UFC and had some wrestling experience that tends to transfer well to MMA so while they got the WWE career as a similarity there isn't much else to make similar comparison to.

Plus I don't think they hyped James Toney's MMA debut which was the last and perhaps only notable MMA debut in the UFC in the non-tournament format UFC. So a let's see what happens approach makes sense.

There was nothing to hype about Toney ,he was brought in to do the opposite and show a UFC champion would beat a boxing one , Dana didnt even want the fight which why they cut Toney afterwards , UFC execs knew it was a waste of time paying an over weight non MMA fighter .

Should Punk win they have marketability leverage .

[Ruthless One]

I'm rooting for CM Punk to win. Some MMA fans dislike him because he came from the WWE but the fact that he left the WWE and is trying to get into MMA because he's interested in doing it is worthy of respect IMO. It's not like he's trying to be champion or anything. He just likes MMA.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Frank Mir was actually on the verge of becoming a gatekeeper when he beat Lesnar. That was actually a big turning point in his career he was 1-2 in his last 3 before that and was KO'd in both of those losses. After that he went on a 7-2 run including an interim title win over Big Nog. I'm sure they only gave him to Lesnar because they felt he was beatable.

Like it was said Punk doesn't have half the pedigree of Lesnar's wrestling and his striking looks slow and sloppy so far. He just seems like your average mid life crisis guy trying to "give a swing" at MMA. Gal wouldn't be in the UFC yet if it wasn't for Punk but he's younger, faster, and more then likely will be a lot more conditioned.

The pressure will be on Punk which I think could effect his cardio as well. Wrestling a scripted match with millions watching is a lot different then a real life fight with millions watching. I respect pro wrestlers don't get me wrong. They work a RIDICULOUS schedule and take lots of bumps and bruises every night. This is a whole different ball park though. I got Gal finishing him in the first. He literally has nothing to lose.

Frank Mir pre-lesner was already heavyweight champ, had broken Sylvia's arm, but then got into a horrible motorcycle accident and was stripped of title..

When he cameback his body was still healing up and wasn't 100% when he took those L's. But yeah it looked like he was headed to journeymen status after the accident

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Cm punk is getting wrecked..

Not sure why they didn't put him in there with some other old dude.. Ufc should have found some random old 145er and brought him up to 170 for punk

[juggernaut666]

Frank Mir was actually on the verge of becoming a gatekeeper when he beat Lesnar. That was actually a big turning point in his career he was 1-2 in his last 3 before that and was KO'd in both of those losses. After that he went on a 7-2 run including an interim title win over Big Nog. I'm sure they only gave him to Lesnar because they felt he was beatable.

Like it was said Punk doesn't have half the pedigree of Lesnar's wrestling and his striking looks slow and sloppy so far. He just seems like your average mid life crisis guy trying to "give a swing" at MMA. Gal wouldn't be in the UFC yet if it wasn't for Punk but he's younger, faster, and more then likely will be a lot more conditioned.

The pressure will be on Punk which I think could effect his cardio as well. Wrestling a scripted match with millions watching is a lot different then a real life fight with millions watching. I respect pro wrestlers don't get me wrong. They work a RIDICULOUS schedule and take lots of bumps and bruises every night. This is a whole different ball park though. I got Gal finishing him in the first. He literally has nothing to lose.

Mir would have beat Couture who was the champion at that time. style wise Mir was the only guy who would have beat Lesnar b/c he had size and submission skills. Couture would have never stood a chance.

[juggernaut666]

Mir has stated he thinks Punks training partners were going easy on him .....from what ive seen I would agree. he said he hopes Punk is playing games and acting like hes not that good which is what ii thought and why I picked Gall to win. CM also made the nmistake of motivatating him at the weigh in ins which tells me the clips of Punk is not acting hes not that level as I hoped....hopefully Gall is also not as good as I think he is.

[-2 Scrappy-]

Mir would have beat Couture who was the champion at that time. style wise Mir was the only guy who would have beat Lesnar b/c he had size and submission skills. Couture would have never stood a chance.

Maybe if you were a huge Mir fan back then. Like it was said nobody knew if he was ever going to get back to the Heavyweight championship level. He was out 2 years, came back and lost by KO in 2 of his next 3 fights. Did you see Brandon Vera almost take his head off? Randy was still thought of in high regard after embarrassing Tim Sylvia and Gonzaga. Circumstances make fights. I think it would have actually been a pretty back and forth fight. Id give a Randy a good chance if it happened around then. After the Lesnar loss and Mirs win vs Lesnar I'd give it to Mir. Never know, could of been as good as Nog vs Couture.

[Eff Pandas]

There was nothing to hype about Toney ,he was brought in to do the opposite and show a UFC champion would beat a boxing one , Dana didnt even want the fight which why they cut Toney afterwards , UFC execs knew it was a waste of time paying an over weight non MMA fighter .

Should Punk win they have marketability leverage .

I say there is a similar thing going on with CM. If Toney would have beaten Couture the UFC woulda been all up his ass with doing another fight and hyping him. Granted the boxing fan base isn't as big or loyal as the WWE fanbase so there is more upside with a WWE guy over a non-mma guy from another pro combat sport typically, but I also still feel like there is an extremely solid chance that should CM look bad and lose he'll be finding his way out of the UFC himself just like Toney with a MMA debut loss in the UFC.

Or if they do keep him it'll be because the PPV numbers were impressive enough that they don't wanna risk Bellator picking him up as this is a different era when a competitor has the ability to compete with them financially more than arguably any other competitor in the past. So they might keep CM around longer even if he sucks for that reason.

[juggernaut666]

Maybe if you were a huge Mir fan back then. Like it was said nobody knew if he was ever going to get back to the Heavyweight championship level. He was out 2 years, came back and lost by KO in 2 of his next 3 fights. Did you see Brandon Vera almost take his head off? Randy was still thought of in high regard after embarrassing Tim Sylvia and Gonzaga. Circumstances make fights. I think it would have actually been a pretty back and forth fight. Id give a Randy a good chance if it happened around then. After the Lesnar loss and Mirs win vs Lesnar I'd give it to Mir. Never know, could of been as good as Nog vs Couture.

Did you see Mir k.o Nog? Mir beat Sylvia and finished him something Couture couldn't do . Only a submission artist would would have defeated Lesnar at THAT time . Mir would beat Couture almost always if they fought ,its a bad match up for him. Only a early 2000's Couture i would give the edge too ,he was no Carwin or Lesnar at the time Brock was there in 2008 .

[juggernaut666]

I say there is a similar thing going on with CM. If Toney would have beaten Couture the UFC woulda been all up his ass with doing another fight and hyping him. Granted the boxing fan base isn't as big or loyal as the WWE fanbase so there is more upside with a WWE guy over a non-mma guy from another pro combat sport typically, but I also still feel like there is an extremely solid chance that should CM look bad and lose he'll be finding his way out of the UFC himself just like Toney with a MMA debut loss in the UFC.

Or if they do keep him it'll be because the PPV numbers were impressive enough that they don't wanna risk Bellator picking him up as this is a different era when a competitor has the ability to compete with them financially more than arguably any other competitor in the past. So they might keep CM around longer even if he sucks for that reason.

Slim chance of one and done , Punk trains MMA ...... Toney put a few months in and was an old man . Punk will fight at least 3 times win or lose