CM Punk‘s first UFC fight didn’t go well. It went disastrously; you already knew that. But Punk is already campaigning hard for a second match with the company, and Dana White certainly seems open to the idea based on the enormous stacks of money that Punk’s debut brought in. Is it going to happen? Former UFC heavyweight champ, pro wrestler and lifelong wrestling fan Josh Barnett thinks so.
Raj Giri from Wrestling Inc. spoke with Barnett and asked him about whether UFC should be the ones to host Punk’s second MMA fight.
“Well, I think they invested all this time and effort and energy into him, then, absolutely, they should give him another fight.” Barnett continued, “I don’t know what kind of contract he has, but usually, it’s a multi-fight deal. He was getting into some pretty deep water to begin with, but I don’t think he was mistaken in that, in any sense of the word. I think that he knew what a difficult climb this was going to be. But kudos to him to step forward and do it anyways.
“I think people would be more interested [in the second fight] to see a back and forth, see a match that was hotly contested, but it’s really up to them. It’s a lot to ask a company like the UFC to do such a thing, but it’s within their power.”
I’m inclined to believe (especially after Dana White walking back his comments after the numbers came in) that UFC isn’t in the business of leaving pretty-much-guaranteed money on the table. They’re going to find a way to promote another Punk fight.
The only problem is going to be finding a fighter of similar calibre to Punk that won’t completely embarrass the company. A quasi-rookie like Gall (who was not at all on the level of someone UFC would normally sign) seemed like a decent pick, but he ended up being miles better than Punk. Maybe we can get another celeb in there against him. A new Herschel Walker fight, perhaps? Heck, try to see if WWE would let Daniel Bryan sign on for a fight. (lol they never, ever would.)
