King Mo: CM Punk proved he is a fighter

Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion and current Bellator contender Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and discussed the MMA debut of Phil ‘CM Punk’ Brooks. Punk lost to BJJ brown belt Mickey Gall at 2:14 of the first, sustaining a pretty good beating in the process. However, he did sustain a beating and did not tap at the first sign of trouble.

“My silver lining is, he a fighter,” said Lawal to Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. “Here’s why I say this. Any normal man would’ve tapped when he’s getting beat up like that, and would’ve quit.

“Man, he didn’t quit. He was getting pummeled, he got put in every bad position, he was flattened out getting hit. And you know what? He kept on trying. There are people, there are vets, there’s some champions out there who’ll tap to strikes. But you know what, he kept fighting and got submitted. So I can give him that. He went out there to win. He tried. That’s all you can ask. Next time he’ll do better.”

“Here’s the thing, man, he’s new to the sport. He jumped in head first and I could tell he felt good. The crowd didn’t get to him, but when he got in the cage, his nerves got to him, because when the fight started, instead of settling down and moving around a little bit, he shuffled forward in kill mode — not using his tools, because he was in a good camp. Duke Roufus knows his thing, he knows his stuff, so I’m pretty sure he was like, ‘when you go out there, feint, use your jab, set something up,’ but CM Punk was in kill mode and just forgot, just didn’t implement the gameplan. It takes practice, it takes time.

“He’s been training for two years with Duke Roufus, putting in work. I text him here and there to check up on him, see how he’s doing and see if he’s feeling good, and man, he was serious about it. You could see his body change. He was pumped up. A lesser man would’ve just found a way to not take the fight, or found a way to pull out, but he didn’t. He stepped up to the plate and took a swing.”

Punk made a contracted purse of $500,000, some 17 times more than the $32,000 that Gall made to win. A number fighters were upset that in one near-skillless contest, Punk made more than most fighters make in their entire career.

What do inaugural UFC women’s strawweight Champion Carla Esparza, former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk, title challenger Vladimir Matyushenko, title challenger Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral, title challenger Jeremy Horn, title challenger Henry Cejudo, title challenger Nate Quarry, Tim Kennedy, Miguel Torres, Roger Huerta, Heath Herring,Tom Lawlor, and Rose Namajunas have in common?

They all made less contracted money with the UFC than did CM Punk, for his one terrible fight. That didn’t sit well with many people, but he appears to have doubled the number of pay per view television buys, bringing in perhaps an extra $9,000,000.

“In hindsight, yeah, he’s worth that,” said Lawal. “You know why? Because if he would’ve fought sooner, the hype would’ve been even bigger.

“People are intrigued, people are tuning in to watch. So they can complain about him not being worth $500,000, but all those people complaining probably watched the fight. … I’d bring him back. He wants to fight. I think that it’s great when a guy like that puts in time and effort and puts it all on the line. People will say that, oh, he shouldn’t be in the UFC. But the UFC signed him, so you know what, give him a chance. Let him fight out his contract. This is a dream for him, just like when Herschel Walker fought. Herschel Walker wanted to fight, they gave him a chance, he did it.”

“I think he’ll fight again. I think he wants to. I don’t know if the UFC will allow it, because I don’t really know what the UFC is doing. I don’t really keep up with them. I just keep up with fighters who I’m cool with in the UFC, but I hope he gets a chance to fight again. If he doesn’t, hey, come on over to Bellator, dog. We’ll get you a fight over here too. … We’ll book him up.”

The UFC had a powerful reason to sign CM Punk. Through his WWE exposure, he was a proven PPV draw, in a world with very, very few other. If the UFC did not sign him, then the UFC’s #1 competitor Bellator surely would.

That math has not changed. So perhaps the UFC will continue to pay out his contract, and put him on smaller regional shows, make a Making of Punk documentary. Perhaps they will find someone for him to fight on a UFC card that is more suitable for a one stripe white belt, but to make money from the investment, it needs to be on the main card of a PPV, which seems problematic given his skill level.

Perhaps they will simply release him. If that happens, he will be in Bellator in a New York minute, being matched with perhaps Royce Gracie. Maybe Bellator can get alleged blue belt Justin Beiber in the cage.

These things happen in mixed martial arts.