Saturday was a pretty stacked day in the world of combat sports. Kazushi Sakuraba and Renzo Gracie were grappling in California at the exact same time that I was up in the mezzanine of the Frank Erwin Center for UFC Fight Night Austin, so I missed an interesting piece of news amidst all the fights. Twitter user FrontRowBrian, a guy who has previously broken some noteworthy UFC stories, got wind of a bombshell rumor and sent it out to the world.
FYI, last Monday was UFC’s big “The Time Is Now” press conference where they announced their 2015 schedule. UFC president Dana White had been teasing a huge announcement, but whatever it was ended up falling through on the day of the event. FrontRowBrian added that the big reveal wasn’t a sponsorship deal or a TV deal, so it was probably a roster addition. Of course, that does leave a lot of wiggle room. The highest-profile signee UFC could conceivably land right now is probably Gina Carano, but negotiations with her have been in a stalemate for months. If CM Punk truly is trying to get signed with the UFC, we’ll have to wait for details to come out. And even if he does sign, there’s no guarantee he’d be on the payroll as a fighter – he could serve as a commentator or analyst, for all we know.
Even if this does turn out to be false, it’s fun to think about. Punk is tight with Chael Sonnen and he practices with the Gracie family, so it’s not like he’d go into the octagon completely out of his element. Here’s the thing, though – if he ends up fighting, he’d probably be in the heavyweight division. So, that’s bad news for CM Punk fans, and good news for people who want to see Mark Hunt punch him into individual atoms. Heck, I’d send Dana White a sixty-dollar check RIGHT NOW for that.
