Gall: I don’t belong on the UFC 203 poster
Candid CM Punk opponent sets new combat sports record for honesty
Combat sports have a tradition of hyperbole that goes unfathomably far back in animal DNA. When threatened, we creatures puff up and make large sounds.
Thus it is refreshing, even startling, to hear complete candor from a fighter.
Rocky 1 has a classic scene where the champ and his management pick Rocky Balboa, then a fading pug, for a shot at the title.
Something like that happened in MMA.
WWE superstar Phil ‘CM Punk’ Brooks decided he wanted to try MMA. Instead of going to a gym, training, and getting a local amateur fight, he signed with the UFC. Then he started training.
Ready … fire … aim.
The UFC had no choice but to offer him a contract, as Bellator would have said yes in a New York minute to the proven PPV buy draw.
The problem was finding an opponent for a 37-year-old with zero competitive experience in combat sports, and a long history of injuries.
UFC president Dana White has a reality series Looking For A Fight, where he and a posse scout prospects at regional shows. There White found Mickey Gall, winning his pro debut. Gall won, knew what White was up to, and called out CM Punk.
The UFC boss was charmed. To the UFC’s credit, they chose a real fighter for Punk in Gall. He is a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, with a 2-0 amateur record, and now, after the UFC tested him on the undercard of a big show, he is 2-0 as a pro.
Punk is such a big deal in pay per view that he, and Gall, made it onto the main card of a PPV, and onto the poster.
Gall’s reaction was winning.
I don’t think I should be on the poster yet,” he said to Steven Marrocco and John Morgan for MMAjunkie. “I know I shouldn’t be. But I’m happy that I am. I’m fighting after Jimmie Rivera and Urijah Faber. It’s crazy.
Gall plans to win on Saturday, and keep the ball rolling with another call out.
I’ll probably have a name in my mouth, he said. It got me to the dance – I’ll keep dancing with that.
And he offered a fight prediction.
Within the rule set, I’m going to be going in there to kill him, he said.
Mickey Gall fights CM Punk on the main card of UFC 203 on Saturday, September 10, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.