The UFC continues to fill in its calendar year with events, with the latest round of announcements including a trip to Chicago for UFC 225 on June 9th. Chicago happens to be the hometown of one CM Punk, former pro wrestling superstar and mixed martial arts neophyte. Since his debut as a professional fighter at UFC 203 in September of 2016 ended in a two-minute dismantling, it’s been an open question as to whether the UFC would welcome Punk back to the Octagon. But given he’s one of the biggest draws in an organization painfully short on star power these days, we suppose it’s not that surprising that he’d get another shot.
“I like that guy. He’s a good dude,” White told the Associated Press back in January. “He wants one more. He wants to get another shot. I’m going to give it to him.”
A Chicago return would make sense for his return, and while there’s been no official announcement as of yet, Punk did go ahead and subtly hinted he wanted on the card with a retweet of UFC 225’s announcement.
— player/coach (@CMPunk) February 4, 2018
CM’s first UFC loss came at the hand of Mickey Gall, who was a mere 2-0 as a pro but still managed to dispatch Punk on the ground with ease. Gall was basically brought into the UFC to give the pro wrestler someone green enough to potentially beat, and we imagine the organization will once again look outside their roster for an opponent. Whether it will be a lower level fighter with the same amount of experience as CM Punk or a splashy celebrity opponent is unclear. But UFC heavyweight Derrick Lewis certainly has an intriguing option:
https://twitter.com/Thebeast_ufc/status/958893669997797376
Floyd Mayweather has been teasing an MMA fight since the start of 2018 and recently posted video footage of himself in the cage. While a fight with Conor McGregor in the UFC seems unlikely, crazier things have happened when hundreds of millions of dollars are up for grabs. But that’d be a suicide mission for Mayweather … on the other hand, Punk could represent a big money opponent Mayweather could potentially beat.
Other strange celebrity opponents include WWE’s Jack Gallagher, boxer Paulie Malignaggi, former Mighty Morphin Power Ranger Jason David Frank, and skate pro turned radio host Jason Ellis. Yep, that’s the state of the UFC these days that we’re seriously discussing that match-up as an actual possibility. Any of these would be awesome and terrible depending on your point of view, but one thing is certain: they’d sell like gangbusters, something the UFC seems to be focusing on above all other considerations these days.
