5 athletes from other sports who fought in MMA

#2 CM Punk

CM Punk's UFC debut was an absolute disaster

While WWE isn’t as popular these days as it was in the late 1990s, CM Punk – real name Phil Brooks – became one of the few pro-wrestling stars to almost cross into the mainstream in 2011 with the infamous ‘Summer of Punk’ angle that saw him steal away the WWE title and feud with WWE bosses Vince McMahon and Triple H. Unfortunately, WWE and Punk didn’t see eye-to-eye regarding his value and in early 2014 he walked out on the company.

He was expected to return at some point, but instead, the UFC announced his signing that December – not to commentate or promote, but to actually fight. Punk hooked up with Duke Roufus and his team – a camp that had produced great fighters like Anthony Pettis and Tyron Woodley. He was supposedly training hard, but his debut fight wasn’t organised until almost two years after his signing was announced.

The rumour was that Punk was struggling to take to MMA – no surprise given he had no prior martial arts background – but the UFC, sensing a buyrate spike, still signed him up to fight raw prospect Mickey Gall. Punk talked a good game but unfortunately couldn’t deliver when the fight came around, throwing arguably the worst-looking punch in UFC history before being taken down, battered and choked out en route to a first-round loss.

To be fair to Punk, he took the loss like a champ, was extremely humble and still claims he’ll be back in the Octagon at some point. When that will be is anyone’s guess.