The bizarre story of C.M. Punk’s Road to UFC debut

There is starting to be more attention on C.M. Punk’s UFC debut fight scheduled for later this summer.

The main reason is UFC holding a “qualifying fight” for Punk’s potential debut opponent, Mickey Gall, this weekend. Two other reasons are the bizarre nature of Gall’s opponent and a new C.M. Punk interview that was more newsworthy for what was unwilling to discuss.

– The first part is that Gall faces Michael (Mike) Jackson in a preliminary fight at UFC Fight Night on Saturday night.

If Gall wins, he advances to face Punk in the summer.

If Gall loses to Jackson, well, that’s where things get bizarre.

– The second part of this situation is that Mike Jackson is not even a pro fighter. Jackson has some amateur and boxing fighting background, but he is a photographer, broadcaster, and college student who just finished his degree at the University of Houston.

So, he thought it was a joke when UFC contacted him to fight Mickey Gall with the idea being a chance to fight Punk. But, the way UFC is marketing the fight is that only Gall will get to face Punk if he wins. So, Jackson is more interested in using this fight to promote his regular line of work in MMA.

“I understand the outcome could be I get ‘Punk,’ and I’m well aware of that,” he told MMAjunkie. “That’s the ultimate goal, because that will take the ‘Mike the Truth’ brand to another level.”

But, if Jackson beats Gall and gets to fight Punk, he would more than welcome the chance to face Punk.

“You have CM Punk, who has no MMA experience, fighting. You got this kid Mickey Gall, who literally wins one fight — he’s fighting in some small town in Jersey that Dana White happened to be at and was like, ‘I want to fight C.M. Punk.’ And he gets signed by the UFC. And then you got me. All my experience is in boxing and kickboxing. Now I’m in the UFC. It’s like, ‘What the f— is going on here?'” he was quoted by MMAFighting.com.

– Enter C.M. Punk for the third part of this situation. Complex.com published an interview with Punk tapping into his anti-social, leave-me-alone attitude.

Punk simply wants to train, prepare for his debut fight, and have the fight, not talk to people asking the same questions about whether he can actually hang in the octagon or if this is some sort of publicity stunt.

And, Punk does not want to talk about his former line of work through WWE. “I don’t feel like fielding questions about it [WWE],” Punk told reporter Kevin Wong at a recent media event with the New Jersey Devils. “I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and I’ve accomplished everything I was going to.”

Punk offered a final shot at UFC critics, which will grow in number as the date draws closer to Punk’s debut fight. It’s the opposite of the pro wrestling world, where people still chant his name at WWE shows and won’t leave him alone in Chicago, as documented by the Complex.com report.

“I don’t give a s— what anybody thinks of me, whether I’m going to fight or not. I know what I’m going to do,” Punk said. “If I did anything in my life based on someone’s negative opinion on me, I would never f—— leave my house. My fans are people who don’t tweet negative s— at me.”

Things will get even more interesting if Gall wins his fight on Saturday, setting the stage for Punk’s UFC debut. The noise will grow even louder, forcing Punk to deal with it or be rattled before he even steps into the cage.

[ READ MORE: Live coverage of this weekend’s UFC fight card at our sister site, MMATorch.com ]