Saturday evening, former WWE Champion CM Punk experienced a very humble beating as he competed against MMA upstart Mickey Gall at UFC 203. In what appeared to be the longest and most excruciating two minutes and fourteen seconds of his like, Punk was forced to submit via rear naked choke after received multiple strikes to his face. A beat-up CM Punk was still optimistic after the fight, stating that this indeed will not be his last time in the Octagon. While many would disagree with the decision, his bank account would gain a better understanding of why he does not mind getting destroying in an MMA fight.
According to pay released by the Ohio Athletic commission (h/t mmafighting.com), CM Punk received a whopping half million dollars for his debut bout against Gall. This does not include his money received from Reebok sponsoring him, nor any other incentives drawn from money received at the gate. This could bump him up to between 600-700 thousand altogether. Not a bad payday for someone with absolutely zero professional mixed martial arts experience.
Mickey Gall, on the other hand, only received 15,000 for the fight, with an additional 15,000 for winning the bout. For those doing the math, that is only six percent of CM Punk’s base salary. Looks like we know who the real winner was, from a financial perspective.
With paydays like these, one could understand why CM Punk would want to fight again. While it would be ridiculous to think that he would throw fights for big paychecks, which was something former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and MMA fighter Bobb Sapp was accused of – losing a total of 19 out of his 31 fights, including 13 straight – the purse received would motivate anyone to ponder the question, Would you be willing to get beat up for a half million dollars?
While this should not be a long-term career for CM Punk, and he did not do it solely for the money, at least there is a silver lining in the dark cloud of this former WWE Champion. With a purse like that, it may only get bigger, based on his supporters hoping that he would tread the same path as Brock Lesnar and win his second match after losing his first one, or antagonists believing that he is wasting his time competing, as the same fate will happen in the next match. And the one after that.
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