Teammate optimistic about CM Punk’s future

In the earliest days of the UFC, tough guys would call up Art Davie and get 120 seconds to make their pitch. They were all brave, but every once in a while, someone would get through that was not a terrific fighter.

That ended a long time ago. The UFC now has some 600 fighters under regular contract, and they are all badasses. When the league signed CM Punk, they made an effort to find someone else with very little pro experience.

UFC president Dana White has a reality series called Lookin’ For A Fight, wherein he scouts new talent, along with sidekicks Matty Serra and now Din Thomas. Mickey Gall won his debut pro fight, having gone 3-0 as an amateur, and spoke directly to White, making his case for a shot. It was granted.

In the meantime, CM Punk had started to practice MMA, his first experience in combat sports beyond rolling for a couple of weeks with Rener and Ryron Gracie, and earning a green belt in Kenpo karate as a child. Punk relocated from his home in Chicago to train with world class coach Duke Roufus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 18 months between signing and fighting was hampered by back surgery, and did not prove to be sufficient to challenge the BJJ brown belt Gall.

However, Punk, real name Phil Brooks, admirably said post fight that he wanted to fight on.

I don’t know what happens from here on out,” he said. “What if I get cut? I don’t know. I think that’s a possibility. Do I want that to happen? No. But who’s to say where I go from here? I don’t know. I definitely want to keep going.

Post fight White indicated that the UFC was likely not the right spot for Punk, given his skill level.

“He’s a nice guy,” said White. “I like him, I have a lot of respect for him. He wanted to give it a shot. I gave him his shot. He probably shouldn’t have his next fight in the UFC. … This is a tough place to learn.

However, UFC lightweight and Roufusport teammate Erik Koch appeared recently on ESPN’s 5 Rounds podcast, and defended Brooks.

“To the people who say they didn’t really see anything spectacular out of 18 months of training, that 18 months is not what you think it is,” said Koch, as transcribed by Brett Okamato for ESPN. “Really, in this time frame, it’s nothing. I started training combat sports when I was four years old and I’ve never really stopped.

“It takes a lot of time. And Punk being older, going in and training for 18 months — you’re going to get better and he’s going to get better, but he’s going up against a kid who’s been training since he was 14. Odds are stacked up against him. I wouldn’t look at is as, ‘Punk looked bad.’ He went up against a very good opponent.”

“Lots of fighters, when they lose, they say the same thing — ‘back to the drawing board.’ Punk got beat quick. There are a lot of people thinking, ‘Oh man, he ain’t doing that again.’ I actually got the opposite when I talked to him. It was kind of like, ‘I’m not going out like that,’ and that’s just awesome.

“He’s got so many people hating, so many haters dogging on him, and he doesn’t give a crap. He’s gonna come back and do it again.”

Punk received some criticism for attacking aggressively and being taken down in the opening seconds of the round, but Koch said that an aggressive attack was the game plan. This is backed up by audio, that caught his corner’s advice.

“Now remember, keep moving forward,” said Roufus right before the fight. “Let’s go for that right hand right away, put him on his ass. If it don’t work, put him on the cage. You got this.

Koch confirmed that that was the gameplan, and said Brooks was not afraid to throw down.

“Regardless if he’s going with the top dogs — me, Anthony Pettis — he’s not afraid to engage,” said Koch. “He’s not afraid to get in there and go. Mickey, there’s not a whole lot of tape on him. Mickey is kind of a guy who likes to get in his rhythm. He’s a long, lankier dude who likes to find his range. We know he’s really good on the ground.

“It was one of those things, we were being realistic. We know Punk’s time frame, how long he’s been training. The game plan was to get in his face and make it a hockey fight, an ugly fight. Take him out of his comfort zone. Along with that, Punk made a couple mistakes, but you can’t take anything away from Mickey.”